In Your Shadow
by OneShotRevolt
Summary: Noob Saibot plans to betray his master, Quan Chi. He wants to take over Netherrealm by unleashing a horde from the Chaos Realm and believes he can manipulate his brother, Sub-Zero, to help him. Sub-Zero, meanwhile, believes he can use this opportunity to try and save his brother's corrupt soul. Either way, the estranged brothers are going to have to spend a lot of time together...
1. Three Shadows

The night had always been his ally. It leant him silence and hid him in its embrace. It locked away his secrets and buried his victims. Tonight was different. Tonight he did not belong.

He was noiseless as he passed by the bristling fingers of snow scuffed pines, but the shadows rejected him. They lurked with a density of their own that bore no relation to the sentinel stems of the forest, or the unblinking stars above. From the corner of his eyes the shadows seemed to shift with a consistency of their own, with otherworldly properties and a presence that whispered of sentience. He shivered despite never feeling the cold. The cold belonged to him. These shadows did not.

As he drew closer to the appointed place, he felt unfamiliar prickles sit at the back of his throat. The ghosts of anxiety, nervousness, and old, worn fears reared heads he thought had long been crushed. He was no longer a student or a child. He had only confidence, self-assurance and purpose in all his actions. He knew his abilities and his limitations; he knew the strength of patience and power of discipline. He could assess a task from a remote distance and know precisely how to act and how to succeed. He had become a master in all that he did, and was peerless in his vocation. And yet the concerns that the boy in him had felt years ago, surfaced just now. Each step forward in the soft powder snow seemed to take him further back in time. Old self-doubts, confusions, and insecurities chiselled away at him until he looked down to check that he was not the small child he felt he had reverted to. The glacier blue of his uniform was almost black under the cover of night. His fully gauntleted arms were thick, muscled and ready. He swallowed and tried to take strength from that.

He realised he had stopped. The slight wayward fall of snowflakes turned meandering on the still, chill air. His breath came out in wreathed clouds through the vents in his mask. He frowned in frustration at his weakness and berated himself for feeling it now of all places. He took a moment to ready himself and pushed on.

The glade was well beyond the grounds of his temple. It was a nowhere in particular that he was surprised his contact even remembered. The first thing he noticed when he stepped out into its silence was the bright face of the half moon that became visible in the clearing. The second thing he noticed was that no moonlight fell upon the glade. Despite lying open to the eyes of the stars and moon, only shadows collected in this place. Visceral shadows. He saw them clearly bending and moving now. He willed himself not to back away from the unnatural spectacle. This was meant to unnerve him. This was all deliberate. The owner of shadows would only take amusement to see his discomfort.

The shadows lifted liquid from the earth and formed with a controlled lethargy into the shape of a figure. Against the night, the figure stood inkier than the darkness. A heavy cowl over its features could not mask the bright ethereal glow of its white eyes.

"I am surprised you had the courage to come." The spectral figure spoke with the echo darker places, almost obscuring the voice he knew so intimately.

"I am surprised you had the humility to ask."

The white eyes narrowed with displeasure and the figure took a menacing step forward.

He kept himself from backing off, but decided against baiting the wraith further.

"If it's true that you've acquired a fraction of skill and discipline in my absence, then you may yet be of use to me, Kuai Liang."

Kuai's insides did a combined churning that married frustrated anger to a repressed urge to impress and be needed by the creature before him.

"Why have you asked me here? Why now of all times have you decided to renew ties with me, brother?"

"Make no mistake!" The wraith hissed so vehemently that Kuai Liang flinched, "You are no brother of mine. This changes nothing. You are not an ally, you are not even an asset. You are merely a tool to me. I care nothing for your reasons for being here. Leave now if you expect anything more than to be treated as timely convenience to my ambition."

That cut deep. It always cut deep, but he did not let the hurt show on his face. He kept a ready, even, serenity in his expression. He let the quiet gather between them for a moment to make extra sure that his voice was cool and emotionless when he spoke.

"As I said before in my letter, I am happy to help you in any plan to destabilise the Netherrealm, so long as it in no way harms anyone in, or the chances of, Earthrealm." He sighed. Sometimes communicating with his older brother felt like treating with a trying, testy student, albeit a particularly lethal one with a reserve pool of emotional leverage over him. "I ask one thing in return of you-"

"Forget it." The wraith the snapped.

"You don't know what I was going to ask!" That slipped out plaintively before he could school his responses again.

"If you think I'm going give up any of the power I've gained from my current condition-"

"I want to talk." That shut his brother up, "I want the opportunity to sit down and talk with you. At no risk to myself. Just a single conversation."

"You think that will do any good?" The wraith sneered.

Kuai Liang's heart fell. The driving motivation behind agreeing to do this was a faint clinging hope that it might give him a chance to save his brother, to somehow undo whatever had sped him down this path to damnation. They both knew this, of course, and he knew his brother meant to use this to his own advantage, preying on Kuai Liang's hope an desperation to further the wraith's own ends.

"A conversation. May I have it? Is it so much to ask in exchange for my services?"

Empty white eyes bored into him. He held their gaze evenly though his insides chilled under their scrutiny.

"Very well. You shall have your _conversation_. In exchange you will follow my lead and orders to an absolute. Is this understood?"

Kuai hesitated. All his common sense and instincts screamed that this was not a good idea. The responsibilities he left behind, the dangers ahead and not to mention the extremely untrustworthy company that had made abundantly clear on previous occasions that Kuai's life was deemed expendable if it hindered advancement... all this gnawed at him. Only his heart, wild and desperate, pushed him forward. He had spent all his life disciplining himself to make decisions like this in the most cold and rational way possible. His brother knew this. They both knew it. And again, they both knew that this opportunity weighed on Kuai Liang at all the right pressure points.

"I understand." He said quietly. "What is it you would have me do?"

The wraith relaxed, and for the first time Kuai noticed something in his posture that reminded him of the man he had been long ago. He was comforted by this, and a small, distant part of him, relished in the prospect of abandoning his weighty responsibility as Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, and for a moment becoming again the eager student ready to follow through on the most dangerous missions set before him.

"Take off your clothes."

Kuai stared at him. It was late autumn in the foothills of the Himalayas. Even a cryomancer would be foolish to test those temperatures. The wraith was already turned away with his attention to the shadows. His hands worked like a puppetmaster forcing shapes to unfold from the darkness. When he turned back he had in his arms a folded black garb with dark greaves and gauntlets set on top. His eyes flashed when he saw Kuai had not moved. Kuai noted the anger, and before it could be voiced began to pull off his Lin Kuei tunic and uniform. The wraith dumped the clothing before him.

"Change into this." He commanded. He again returned his attention to the shadows. He bent down to the earth and produce one last item. He stood and tossed it onto the greaves. It was a high bridged black half mask, exactly like the wraith's own. Kuai looked up when he saw it, finally catching on to what was going on.

"I'm pretending to be you?"

"Nothing new there then."

Kuai allowed that, under the circumstances, that was quite amusing. He reached for the mask quickly to hide what was becoming burning embarrassment on his cheeks.

"For the record," Kuai said as he put on the full black padded clothes and mask, all a perfect imitation of the wraith's own, "I was not trying to be you. I thought only to honour you by taking your name. I meant to avenge you and-"

"How did that work out for you?" The question was cold and already aware of the answer it summoned. Kuai blinked at the unfairness. He had defeated his brother's killer and fully intended to finish the culprit off. An unforeseen and painful reunion with his clan had seen Kuai dragged from the scene before his vengeance was complete. It was not worth relating. The matter would be seen as an unfinished failure by his brother anyway – he had always dealt in perfection and absolutes.

As he knelt one knee in the snow and finished dressing, Kuai glimpsed another figure moving in the shadows behind his brother. The two seemed to finish each others movements, working in a perfect tandem. The second figure seemed suddenly to look Kuai straight in the eye. The wraith turned and looked down at him. Kuai glanced away, feeling somehow embarrassed.

"Stand."

Kuai stood.

"Meet Saibot. You're going to be working very closely with my shadow, Kuai Liang. I trust that's not too unfamiliar a task for you."

Kuai was glad for the heavy hood and high mask as his face involuntarily burned with indignation. He kept his temper however and sullenly regarded the figure behind his brother as it stepped forward. Its shape lingered somewhere between two dimensions and three. It glistened with a semi-liquid consistency. Kuai's skin crawled as it surveyed him with eyes that were a pale mockery of the wraith's blinding white ones. The shade turned abruptly from Kuai. It walked forward and stepped into the same space his brother occupied, vanishing. Kuai retracted.

"No need to be alarmed." The wraith sounded amused. He rattled a tinny bottle that he brought out from the folds of his sleeves. Kuai watched him warily. "Mask off."

Kuai obeyed. The wraith stepped closer. Kuai felt suddenly naked without the mask to shield his expressions. He closed his eyes just in time as his brother sprayed paint across the top half of his face. He spluttered in the fumes, and turned away quickly, blinking watering eyes as the chemicals swarmed his tearducts.

"Bastard." He swore softly, and he thought he heard a chuckle in response.

"Come." The wraith said. Kuai heard him begin to walk.

"Wait." He said, trying to sound every bit as authoritative as he didn't feel. His burning eyes would not stop flooding with water as he blinked blindly. The forest was only dim shapes half formed behind the blur in his vision, and he heard his brother move further away. "Wait! Bi-Han, I can't see-"

Before he could even think he felt a tight grip on the front of his new cowl. He instinctively writhed to get free and brought his arms in to defend himself, but was slammed hard against a tree. His head hit the trunk with force and his hands went immediately to the tight grip around his throat. He blinked sightlessly, then his instincts kicked in. He slammed his arms down on his attackers forearms to free the grip at his neck then brought them up quickly towards his opponents face. He caught his attacker with fist to the chin, but as he did so received a swift punch to the face, then a second, then a third.

"Enough!"

Kuai instantly obeyed, though his body remained tense and his arms curled up before his face. He blinked again, dizzy from the hard jabs to his jaw. Shapes before him slowly started to come into sharper view. He became bitterly embarrassed that the sting of the paint made it look like tears were running down his face. In defensive fury, he spat,

"First you blind me, then you attack me? If this is your idea of collaboration, then I am finished with-"

"Do not ever call me that name again."

Kuai paused. He blinked the last of the pain away and saw clearly the sharp relief of his brother's mask, lit by the glare of his undead eyes. The wraith released him.

"Now hurry up."

Kuai ran his tongue over the place where his lip had split and swallowed down his anger and impatience. He cursed himself for the first, but not the last time, for undertaking this venture. As he fixed on the new mask he hesitantly followed the wraith, gingerly avoiding the shadow that stretched long and visceral behind him.

"What... what should I call you?" He said as he caught up to him. The wraith did not turn to him, and at first he thought he had again earned its ire.

"You do not need to call me anything. Your part here is not to speak, only to obey." After a moment he spoke again though, "If you must, you will address me as Noob Saibot."

Kuai hesitated. The name sounded strangely meaningless to him. It hid the things he knew about this man behind another curtain of obscurity.

"As you wish."

Kuai followed in silence. It was easier not to be in his line of sight. It merited less unwanted attention. He was already feeling more emotionally rattled and drained than he had in years. _It's the one area I always needed more discipline in,_ he told himself. _This is an exercise. It's all an exercise in self-control. I need to confront this. I need to confront him, and not just force his spectre to the back of my mind. Even if I can't help him, I need to do this for me. I need to become stronger. I am Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, the greatest clan of assassins in all the world. I defeated Scorpion of the Netherrealm. I defied the Cyber Initiative. I brought down Sektor and all those he corrupted. I survived the Mortal Kombat tournament, the invasion of Outworld, and reformed the Lin Kuei. I can survive whatever he throws at me._ It was not the dangers of whatever task lay before them that concerned him however. He had faith in his own martial prowess and command over stealth. His dread was the inevitable, biting interaction that he knew would shred him in the worse ways possible. Somehow Bi-Han had always known what was going on in his head, and knew just the right words to say to tip Kuai into self-doubt, confusion, and shame at somehow failing to live up to an expectation.

"This will do." They had stopped at another innocuous glade. Kuai Liang patiently waited. His brother turned to face him. Kuai watched him warily, ready should there be another attack. He started as the wraith's shadow separated from him and stood to one side, arms folded, and watching. Kuai tore his attention from it to regard his brother.

"Copy my movements."

They stood before one another as reflections in a mirror. Kuai immediately bent himself to replicating his brother's movements simultaneously with him. Small open hand gestures were subtle and difficult to imitate in the dim light. He followed the lines of the wraith's kata, trying to read the way he directed his energy and dropped his weight. His style had changed much since Kuai had last trained with him. All he had to go on were the old giveaways he recalled from the way his brother moved. He had spent so many hours trying to keep up with Bi-Han that those tell-tale signs had become a language in themselves. They spoke to him of weight distribution, of a stance about to drop, of taught energy wound up, ready to explode forth. He could not tell if this was a full form or a seemingly random series of moves. If it was a form it was not one the Lin Kuei taught, nor one that he was able to completely comprehend in its purposes. He knew he followed exceptionally well given that he had never seen the movements before, but felt himself choke up at the inevitable shortfall in perfection he knew was expected from him. He could read that distant disappointment in the loose swing of Bi-Han's limbs as he finished the exercise.

"If you let me go over this again I can get it right." He said quickly and defensively, "Only its very different from before and-" _Excuses_. Bi-Han never had any time for them. "Just once more?" He looked up hopefully.

"You will have practice soon enough. My shadow has a sentience of its own and you will be acting in its place – I have already calculated your imperfections into my plan. It is not important that you are exact, you need only fool a casual observer. Most of Netherrealm's inhabitants are lacking in perception anyway."

The brief relief he felt at not being reprimanded for his shortcomings was crushed by the knowledge that they had been anticipated and planned for.

"We are ready to go to the portal. And remember, no ice."

Kuai stopped suddenly,

"What?"

"You heard me."

Now he was worried. A plan that involved him entering the Netherrealm and not using his ability to summon ice... He had worked to bring his command of the element so seamlessly into his fighting style that to move without it was almost inconceivable. He could barely separate out his powers conceptually from the rest of his movements. This coupled with everything else dealt him a significant blow in confidence. Something dangerously close to panic curled inside him. This was only exacerbated by his desperate attempt to conceal it.

He breathed in and out slowly, trying to calm himself and think of his own meditative techniques. In the old thick stone walls of the Lin Kuei Temple he walked as a bastion of self-control and calm, extending it gently to his students whenever they struggled with a move, a difficulty, a confusion, or frustration. How could such confidence be ripped like a rug from under him so quickly?

"You asked for my aid." Kuai drew himself up, "I can do little that will be helpful to you if you hinder my skill set in such a way." He kept his voice monotone.

"You will be even less helpful to me if everyone can see you are obviously an Earthrealm cryomancer. You will also, incidentally, be dead very quickly."

Kuai Liang tried to keep his gaze steady,

"This will severely handicap my ability to fight. If you do not wish me for that purpose, then why am I here, B-?" He stopped himself. The two of them locked eyes. Kuai could not bring himself to say that alien sounding name. Instead he dropped his gaze and fell silent.

"It is my hope that travelling through the Netherrealm will not be too arduous. As I reach the appointed place and begin the ritual for opening a portal to the Chaosrealm however, it may well be that Quan Chi will have caught wind of my betrayal – Netherrealm is filled with those that would sell anything and everything to him in a moment if it bought them some momentary reprieve. Even having become a master of multitasking of late..." Both he and his shadow folded their arms in amusement at this, "I doubt I will be able to hold off what is sent at me whilst trying to complete the ritual. At that moment you are free to use any ability in all hell. Do I make myself clear?"

Kuai Liang nodded slowly,

"And..." Kuai hesitated, "Will you allow me safe escort back to an Earthrealm portal?"

"I can hardly say," The wraith said dismissively, "If the both of us still live, so to speak," He added dryly, "then we will live to see the hoards of chaos run rampant through the Netherrealm. That in itself is likely to be a predicament to work around."

"But you will _try_? Will you not? I have responsibilities here-"

"To the _Lin Kuei_. Yes..." He said, clearly entertained, "I know."

Kuai searched his eyes earnestly,

"If you d-"

"You will have your escort back to Earthrealm."

Kuai indicated his acceptance. This entire affair was sounding more and more absurd the deeper in he got. He kept those reservations guarded close though, and said nothing of them.

* * *

 **Author Note:** This is a one-shot story, unrelated to my last MK one, Katharsis. It is 6 chapters long with a short epilogue at the end. This is an unapologetically haphazard amalgamation of previous and current MK timeline events to create a new story. It takes place after Kuai Liang has reformed the Lin Kuei. Inspiration to write a story like this came after reading nivet's great fic 'Afraid of My Own Shadow' which I highly recommend.


	2. Life in the Underworld

They came upon the portal suddenly. It gaped wide; a slowly spinning vortex of mutating purple. It's mouth was an indistinct murky black. It stood as a startling anomaly blaring is alienness against the still snowy quiet that Kuai Liang knew so well. He studied it. He had been through a number of portals before, but that was some time ago now, and they had never been to the Netherrealm, and never in the current company. Noob Saibot was striding purposefully toward its yawning abyss. Kuai could not believe there was going to be no more discussion of this before the plan went under way.

"Wait." He said. The wraith turned slowly and set Kuai with his empty stare. "What am I to do in there? Should I just... follow? Or keep a distance?"

The wraith's shadow emerged from the ground. It walked up close to Kuai and pointed two fingers to Kuai's eyes then pointed to itself.

Kuai tried to glance around it to confirm what was meant with the wraith, the shadow gripped his chin suddenly and turned his face firmly to look into its own. Kuai's eyes widened in surprise as he felt the cold oily texture of its fingers. He knew the shadow had a substance to it, having felt its weight thrown at him in the past. This was much more strange though, much more personal. He allowed himself for the first time to consider that this shadow was also somehow part of his brother, part of who he was. He opened his mouth, but the shade pressed a finger to his mask for silence. It shook its head. Kuai regarded the flowing dark that made up the shadow's form with a steady wariness. He nodded though and the shade release him. It indicated that Kuai should follow and mimic it.

When he stepped through the portal, Kuai felt the world bend and distort around him. All his breath was ripped from him and he felt his head heave heavy with a sudden bombardment of grasping grips all reaching to take a piece of him. He clasped his skull, eyes wide as he tried to fight off the intrusions. A vicious stab of unbelonging resounded through his bones. A sudden urge to throw himself back through the portal spiralled through his mind. He felt invasive fingers reaching into him, and whispers beckoning him in a multitude of directions. Flashes of events spun wild before his eyes. Memories collided simultaneously and threatened to overload his senses. He tried to gasp and shudder for breath but could not. His heart fluttered furiously. He sent ice through his fingers, over his hands and up over all his skin. He let its cold familiarity run through him. He settled his mind, drew himself together and set his will firm and binding. Whatever this intrusion was, he meant to fight it as he would anything else. Immediately the whispers subsided and the taxation on his thoughts receded.

When he opened his eyes, he was kneeling on red compact earth. Everything around him felt tenuous, as if in a moment it might break apart. Red rock stood stark beside simmering pits of exposed lava that hissed and burst with occasional plumes of sulphurous steam. The sky above was empty and faceless, and Kuai could not tell if it belonged to the outside or inside, it was merely blank and half-obscured by fuming vents of black smoke. His attention focussed on his brother. Both he and his shadow were looking down on him. Kuai thought for a moment he saw something like concern in the wraith's eyes.

Kuai stood uncertainly and put a hand to his head.

"What...?" He trailed off when he remembered he was not meant to be speaking, and glanced around anxiously in case he had been heard. His brother tilted his head to one side.

Kuai stepped closer and kept his voice low,

"What was that?! You could have warned me! I thought my head was going to be torn apart!"

The wraith studied him,

"Warned you of what?"

Kuai tried to work out if this was another carefully crafted insult. He reflexively drew himself up and stepped away, assuming that Bi-Han again meant to make him look weak.

"Nothing. It's nothing." He said quietly.

The wraith kept his eyes narrowed on him a little longer. Then he turned away,

"No more words."

The wraith began walking. Kuai started to follow, but the shadow stopped him and indicated the jagged low cliff that ran along beside them. Kuai followed the shade, and the two hugged the crag with their footsteps, lingering in its shadow whilst the wraith walked openly along the corridor of flat earth bordered by a sea of bubbling magma.

The heat set Kuai's teeth on edge. It was nothing close to anything he had experienced before. It had a dry vivacity to it, and set the air shimmering over the boiling sea. It shuddered and heaved with a malice all of its own and clung to the heavy folds of his cowl and black tunic. He regularly sent chills of ice through his veins when he was sure it would not be noticed.

They met nothing but the empty wastes as they passed along in silence. The unusual weight of the armoured tunic covering Kuai's chest pressed the cloth beneath against his already hot skin. He wrinkled his nose, where the dark grey paint on his face itched as it met his sweat. All his personal discomforts flushed from his mind when he felt the slick oily grip of the shade on his bicep. It indicated. The crag broke away to rove off to their right, while Noob continued forward, his path taking him over a narrow rock bridge that connected this side to a peninsular beyond that stuck out into the angry lakes of lava. Kuai followed the shade's lead. The two kept a distance from the wraith, mimicking his stride as they trailed him.

As they descended down the slope of the bridge, Kuai saw his brother stiffen. Immediately he scanned the new bank for signs of movement. He saw nothing. When they reached the far side, Noob stopped before a large leaning rock that sent the path ahead into shadow.

"Show yourself." His voice was less ghostly here, Kuai realised. It sounded much more like Bi-Han and less an undead wraith. He followed the shade and they both flattened themselves against the rock face. The shade turned to Kuai and put up a finger for quiet, then motioned that Kuai should stay. It sunk into the ground until it was a black pool. The pool slipped forward, clearly summoned by the wraith, and scouted ahead. Kuai was left alone. His heart pounded as he truly contemplated what was happening. He was a mortal in the realm of the dead and damned, pretending to be the shadow of a wraith that without a second thought would kill him if it were not for his immediate utility. He steadied his nerves and kept his eyes trained on his brother, who stood very still and alert. All at once his posture relaxed and he folded his arms into an attitude Kuai knew only too well indicated his dismissive displeasure. A woman's voice yelped from around the corner, and she came into view, bowled over by a kick from the shadow. She was lean, pretty even, with dark tattoo markings curling about her pale face framed by two tone hair. Kuai was surprised to see anyone in this realm looking so human. He was wisely wary though, this was not a place one made assumptions lightly.

"What a coincidence! Fancy seeing you here, Bi-Han." Kuai started in surprise. He saw the woman peer behind the wraith and frown in his direction. Kuai stayed completely motionless. He had never heard anyone outside the Lin Kuei call his brother by his name. Noob did not appear pleased by the term of address either.

"Out of my way, _demoness_." He said coldly.

The woman dusted herself down and drew herself up. She held herself like a rangy wild cat and was fluid in her movements.

"Your introductions are polite as usual, I see." She sighed, "Really, with friends like you one need not have enemies." Kuai blinked. He saw his brother bristle and shift. _Is that embarrassment?_ He could barely believe his own thoughts, _embarrassment in front of me?_ This venture was becoming more surprising by the second.

"I have no _friends_." Noob hissed with a venom Kuai was only too used to, "When will you learn that you mean nothing to me, Sareena. We are pawns in a sorcerer's game. There is no kinship between us. Any cease in hostility is merely in accordance with his will, I assure you." His posture was arrogant, aloof, distant; one that Kuai knew only to well. His heart went out to this supposed demon in kinship.

"Indeed?" She took the rejection well, Kuai noted, better than he often did, anyway, "You don't fool me, Bi-Han. I know you have no desire to bow to Quan Chi. And so does he." Suddenly the dynamic changed. She was proud in her posture and Kuai realised his brother looked agitated and uncertain. "He commanded me to meet you on your return and escort you home. There are matters he would discuss with you. Not least of which is your loyalties, I should think."

" _Liar_." The wraith hissed, but Kuai could hear he lacked conviction in that accusation, "He would not send you. He knows you to be treacherous. I have done nothing to earn his suspicions."

She laughed and the sound made Kuai retract he premature sympathies, this woman was clearly very sure of her own position and possessed all the power in this exchange.

"I see." She said easily, "Are these the words you wish me to convey to him, then, when I explain your absence?"

Everyone present knew the noose was tied.

" _Leave me._ " Noob spat, "I will report to Quan Chi. But not with _you_. Get out of my sight unless you want to go begging Quan Chi to reform a human body for you."

Kuai frowned in confusion. The woman only laughed.

"As you wish, Bi-Han." She glanced once more with suspicion towards the shadows where Kuai crouched, before turning and walking away with a cool bounce to her step. Kuai remained very quiet, trying to make sense of the encounter. A moment later his brother's shadow formed beside him. He found himself both disturbed and relieved by the sight. The two crept closer to the wraith, who turned his head slightly toward them,

"There's been a change of plan," the wraith said softly, "We're making a brief detour."

"You're not _serious_? You can't be thinking of going to Quan Chi's fortress!?" Kuai's mask was close to the wraith's ear as he tried to keep his voice as quiet as possible.

"It is too soon. I cannot let him suspect this early. We will not make it to the location in time. We must go to him. Reassure him that all is well."

" _We_? You want me to go _with_ you? Are you crazy?!"

"You will not be suspected if you remain with me. What will cause suspicion is reports of me in multiple places at once. My shadow is not in the habit of straying far from me."

"But, Bi-Han, Quan Chi will know! Surely he will sense that I am alive-"

"Hush."

The word was strangely comforting. It reminded Kuai of older times. Times when he put his worries aside and trusted in his brother to solve situations for him. It felt difficult to hand all the responsibility back to him now. He was used to relying on himself. An entire temple of assassins and those in training looked up to him as Grandmaster and put that trust in him. It had been a daunting responsibility to take on but one that he had taken extremely seriously. Despite being the one who had always pushed to distance the brothers since his death, Bi-Han somehow expected Kuai to slot back easily into being the child that had traipsed around behind him. _He's more a captive to the past than I am,_ Kuai thought in frustration.

"It is some way to the fortress from here. Quan Chi will be expecting me to move more quickly than I can with you. I usually teleport short distances and make the journey swiftly. It will take some hours to do by foot and the way is treacherous. Be wary. Sareena may be spying on our progress at intervals and reporting back to her master." Not _our_ master, Kuai noted. This 'Sareena' was certainly right that Quan Chi had long been usurped in Noob Saibot's mind.

The wraith began walking again, this time with a much more brisk pace.

The light did not change in the Netherrealm. There seemed to be no sun, no moon, nothing to mark the passage of time. There was only the constant red half-light set on a baked world. As they walked its highlands dipped with molten pools and streams of brilliant lava, Kuai became conscious of a faint monotone high noise that held in his ears. The further they walked, the more the tone split into dissonances and a multitude of pitches. He realised with a slow sickening dawning that the sound was the chorus of constant screaming. He shuddered, shaken by the thought of the picture that must generate such a cacophony. The wraith looked at him. Kuai could read nothing in his eyes. There could have been indifference there, amusement, fear... Far off in the distance pricks of glowing light rained down to the earth, sending the dark hills before it into shadowy dances as firelight lit up the bleak black crags. Kuai turned to his brother in dismay. The wraith tilted his head and spoke quietly,

"There is much here you do not know. Keep it that way. There are circles, plains, and abysses that stretch to an eternity. You lose nothing by being in ignorance of them."

Kuai did not press this. Instead, he focussed on walking. The heat about him was increasing.

He could feel his tongue hot and dry in his mouth. He soon pressed a constant sheen of ice over his skin, but this would melt in seconds leaving him drenched and further hit by the temperature rise evoked from the humidity.

Shortly, they paused again,

"The quickest path is through a wood." The wraith raised a finger close to Kuai's face and indicated as one might a child, "Do not touch _anything_ in there. Understood?"

Kuai nodded. He could feel his irritability at being spoken to in such a way simmering as hot as the heat he felt prickling through all his skin.

He soon found 'wood' to be a charitable description of the sight before him. Gnarled dead trunks twisted to form a darkness that was crowned in the dusky sunken colours of crisp foliage. Kuai hesitated, reluctant to enter beneath the eaves of the cruel branches. The forest edge curled away to his left and right. The bright brimstone bubbling of choked thick rivers glimmered at the further limits of his vision.

As soon as they entered, the world fell into hot, turbid darkness. All instances of light faded to dim, weak monochrome. The creak of slow wood filled the air. Despite the steeped sweat on his brow, the thick heat down his neck, and the weariness he felt creeping through him, Kuai instinctively moved his footsteps as an assassin. His toes edged around the dead matter littering the dry earth, so as not even to stir a leaf. He could hear the soft exhale of his breath through the vents of his borrowed mask. The shapes of the trees were curious, tortured somehow, and stretched, as if in pain. In the filtered films of light he glimpsed stranger shapes still. Knots in old branchwork that recollected features – here a bulbous, round nose, there the contorted lips of a wide open mouth, here the unseeing eyes of smooth empty bark. The wood groaned all about him. In the depths of that moan there were patterns of language, half-obscured by overgrown voiceless trees. Kuai Liang stopped himself as his hand reached for his brother's arm. He slowed his fast breathing and maintained his steady step. The sound came again, this time clearer. The rustle of dead leaves were the whispers of a thousand voices. Their words were indistinct lamentations moving on the air, filling up the thick dark with their secrets.

When Kuai looked again to his brother, he saw the wraith's unearthly, glowing white eyes stand clear in the gloom. The shadows shifted about him sliding up and over trunks and roots, swirling about him and slipping in and out of him. Kuai felt a riveting loneliness at that sight. He knew a closing, overwhelming abandonment and could not see the kinship of the infernal creature before him with the brother he had once cared for. The figure walked on under the roaming arms of the groaning trees. Kuai saw the darkness gather quickly behind him and lurched forward, unwilling to loose his only guide in this realm. As he did so, the bulky armour on his arm snapped a thin twig. A piercing scream rent the air apart. The explosion of sound ignited into a torrential flurry of feathers in the branches above. Kuai stared down in horror at the twig he had snapped. It bled fast and red onto the forest floor. He backed away as the scream distilled into a single repeated, shrieking question,

" _What have you done!? What have you done to me!?"_

He stumbled back in horror and the mad flutter of wings all about him unfolded into fast fluttering shapes that began to swerve and dive, pecking madly at the leaves of the screaming tree. The voice returned to its agonised pitch, asking for pity, for mercy, for its thin crinkled leaves to be left just so. Kuai Liang fled from the scene, feet taking a thunderous route through the wild trunks. Instinct kept him lithe, fast and breathless. He took a straight line and put as much distance as possible from that unnatural scene.

When he broke open into the scarred red landscape beyond the forest edge, his vision was blurred with faintness and his heart was pounding in his chest. He glanced back and saw a cacophony of raven winged humanoids diving in and out the high foliage somewhere above the depth of the wood. His eyes refocused when he saw shadows slither live and liquid from among the writhing roots of the forest. He backed off. The shadows slid together into a figure and Noob Saibot stepped forth whole into the wan Netherrealm light.

"I told you not to touch anything."

Kuai Liang only stared at him.

As they continued their path, Kuai felt himself faltering. He had asked nothing of the wood or its occupants, but the encounter had disturbed him. His mind kept wondering back to that confused question, that utter despair and desolation, that begging to know why further torment was being done. Kuai shook his head. He could feel himself physically drained by the heat, the distance, the lack of water, the unforgiving pace, the long hours since he had last eaten or slept, and the oppressive, inexplicable weight that this alien place forced at all times upon his mind. He realised that, in death, it might well be that his brother experienced none of these difficulties, and in his usual arrogance, may well have forgotten that a mortal did. The idea of admitting his physical limits to Bi-Han made Kuai feel veritably sick. He warred for some time in his head. The rational part of him knew that for the mission to be a success he was going to need to be in good form, and that good form meant looking after himself – rest, sleep, eating, drinking. He was a tough warrior, but he was human, unlike anything else in this cursed realm. His pride seemed to be a lot taller than he remembered it being. He could hear it screaming with all those tortured Netherrealm souls every time he considered stopping the wraith. A dread inside him realised his pride might be strong enough to kill him. It would be ironic, he thought, to die of exhaustion in hell.

He pushed himself on even though his limbs felt increasingly sapped of strength. He tried to force himself to endure the heat without summoning ice, willing himself to accept that the momentary relief would only add to the problem when the ice melted. Spots danced across his vision and he only vaguely recalled the twisting shapes of his surroundings. Mockeries of mountains leant lopsided and played with the horizon, sometimes appearing to be close and other times far away. No living thing grew, and only the shadows interrupted the red that caked all in its burnt cloak.

Kuai stumbled. The shadow stared at him. Kuai put his head down and walked on. For the second time he felt himself swung roughly back against a solid substance, head cracking back, whilst his vision reeled a moment too slow. He heard himself groan at the impact, but still brought his arms up to defend himself. His movement was sluggish.

"What is wrong with you?" The wraith hissed in a conspiratorial undertone.

Kuai said nothing. His swimming vision focussed on the wraith's bright eyes. He tried to summon all his remaining strength to present a coherent face behind which to hide.

"You're ready to drop!" His brother recoiled in surprise and disgust.

Kuai swayed as the wraith released him,

"I am not." His voice sounded cracked and exhausted. He felt himself grabbed roughly by both arms and tugged in a direction.

The next thing he felt was the cool welcome splash of water on his face. He grasped eagerly for the water but was fought down by strong arms. For a moment his lips quivered in anticipation, then the rim of a vessel was offered to them and he drunk long and deep. He made a noise when the water was taken from him.

"Not too fast." He heard his brother's voice and relaxed in its safety. The water sent cold spikes of reality through him as he recalled where he was and who he was with. He jerked upright when he realised his head was being propped up. His vision swam but he scrambled away quickly. He saw that he was in a darkened cave, almost spherical in shape and lit only by the dull light of magma away beyond its low entrance. The wraith was knelt on one knee with a shallow bowl of water in one hand. His shadow stood looking down on them both, posture unreadable, arms folded. Kuai reached a hand for his face and realised it was maskless. He felt caged and hunted with his back to the dead end of the cave. He could his own heartbeat loud in his ears.

"You neglected to remind me of your mortal status." The wraith said with dry amusement.

"I do not need your pity." Kuai snapped, surprised at his own vehemence.

"No..." The wraith continued in his insufferable, entertained toned, "But you do need

sustenance."

Kuai's face burned in flustered anger.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, little brother..." The wraith drawled. This was the first time the undead spectre had ever called him 'brother'. Kuai did not miss its very deliberate use, a distinct parallel to an earlier life where the older brother had always called him out as weaker. His faced stormed with a real anger he would have acted on had his limbs not been so sapped of strength. The wraith saw the fury in his face and laughed.

"Enough of this. Sleep, Kuai Liang. You are no use to me in this state."

Kuai fumed in silence. His eyes strayed of their own accord though and lingered on the dish in the wraith's hand. The wraith tilted his head and a low chuckle passed from him. His shadow stepped forward, retrieved the bowl and handed it to Kuai.

"I trust you can acquire water to drink." The wraith gave. Kuai nodded, removed a glove and chilled the air, summoning condensation to his fist and pumping ice into the small vessel. The fractals melted in moments to clear water. Before he sipped, he caught a glimpse of himself in the still, pure surface. He was surprised to see his brother's reflection looking back at him. The cowl and grey paint pushed past surface detail and brought out the strong familial resemblance. For just a fraction he felt lost, like his identity was slipping away from him, like he had really become the man who's name he had taken, who's identity he had assumed long before this foolhardy expedition into the Netherrealm. He drank and sighed as the cool water spilled welcome down his parched throat.

"Now sleep. When you wake I will have food you can eat."

"You're leaving?" The words escaped him before he could think.

"Only for a short while," The wraith mercifully did not exploit his concern, though Kuai doubted that was a conscious effort. "The creatures of these parts know not to cross me. I will keep the cave entrance covered at all times just to be sure. Nothing can be trusted here."

A soporific lethargy was seeping into Kuai's limbs,

"It's... a lot hotter here than I thought it would be," He said sleepily. He watched through half closed eyes as his brother considered this.

"I..." The wraith's eyes narrowed as if struggling with something, "I... vaguely recall." Kuai tried to blink his eyes open, he wanted to be awake to hear that human sounding admission. "I came here once as a mortal... it... it was... hot, I think. And the ice only melted..."

"... and became humid." Kuai murmured.

"Yes..." The wraith considered, "I had to keep a continual layer of ice over my skin but the effort was very draining. In the end I worked out times and places that were cooler... took regular breaks and always set off with ice layered thick over my vital organs..."

"I didn't think of that." Kuai admitted.

"No... well that doesn't surprise me. Ingenuity in the moment was never a strong point of yours."

"And patience was never yours."

"Hah. Be quiet now and rest."

Kuai's eyes tripped shut and he curled his body up defensively as he let himself lie on the hard ground.

"What about Quan Chi?" His eyes flickered open, as his mind fought to still work through the problems they faced though his body objected, "Isn't he expecting you? If you don't turn up-"

"Kuai Liang!"

"Sorry. Yes, I will sleep. Sorry."

* * *

Sleep did not belong to the realm of the dead and, as such, did not behave normally. Kuai Liang discovered this to his dismay when he found himself immediately almost lucidly present in what he hoped was his own mind. His first thought was one of relief. Familiar blank snow banked up around him, broken only by the long, regular shadows of dark pines. A stiff Himalayan wind kicked up old flakes and pushed them as it wished, causing shifts in the shapes of the drifts about him. He looked up and saw the familiar great grey stone bulwarks of the temple walls. He smiled at the safety they evoked, a stability and certainly so far removed from the oddities of recent. His brow furrowed when he saw the banners upon the stout watchtowers though. They belonged to the previous Grandmaster. Slowly, all the associated safety and calm drained from him until he was left only with dread. What was this? What was he meant to be doing? Was he late? The thought of earning the Grandmaster's ire chilled him and set a fast pace in his heart. He looked down, his arms wore the thin wiry muscles of childhood and his figure had the awkward lean of starting adolescence. _Why am I outside the walls?_ _I'm not allowed to be here, if they find out I-_ but he had been outside once before he came of age. He recalled now as he turned and looked over his shoulder. A young, powerfully built man stood with hands on his hips, dressed in a tunic the shade of deep winter skies before thick storms,

"Are you happy now?" As he spoke, cold air funnelled through the vents on his mask. Kuai hoped he could one day have one like that. He always liked the way the cold streamed out of his brother's mask, it reminded him of mythical beasts from plays and old stories he had read. There was a light to his brother's expression that set Kuai at ease. His previous concern smoothed away in the comfort of that immovable presence.

"I never dreamed that it looked like this! Our temple is the most beautiful building in the world!"

"Hah!" His brother scoffed, "You've never even seen another building before."

"I've seen them in books and paintings," Kuai said defensively, "And none ever looked like this. From the outside, it looks like a fortress! And look at the way the snow tries to stack up the sides but cannot reach, and the trees are all dwarfed by the towers. Nothing can defeat the Lin Kuei!"

"Alright, we have a true lover of architecture among us. Let's get back before someone realises you've gone."

"Do we have to? Can't we stay just a bit longer? Looking at the temple from here... I feel so free."

His brother glanced at him,

"What do you mean?"

The young Kuai sighed and without really thinking said,

"I don't know... I never thought about it until now but... those walls have always been there around me. I like the feel of them not being there. I like the wind. I like the cold. I like the way the snow crunches without there being stone underneath. And I like there not being anyone to tell me off."

He let out a muffled cry as Bi-Han gave him a playful but weighted punch to the shoulder,

" _I_ can still tell you off, moron. Now come on."

His brother's face had something serious and concerned still lingering in it Kuai recalled. All faded to the calm of pale snow though and the memory fell away.

* * *

Kuai sat up quickly. He felt as though only a few minutes had past, but knew from the rejuvenated feel of his limbs that it must have been considerably longer. It was darker than he remembered it being.

"Bi-Han?" He received a deadening punch to his shoulder. He swore as he nursed it. His brother's shadow stood next to him, eyes narrowed. Kuai turned away muttering.

The wraith entered moments later carrying a suspect looking long bone fleshed with charred meat.

"What is _that_?" Kuai recoiled.

"Definitely cooked." Noob offered it to him.

"Are you crazy? Is that human?"

"It's food. Eat it or go hungry. I don't care which, but if you can't stand upright and fight I'll kill you myself."

That sobered Kuai right up. He remembered he was in the heat of hell, that his brother was dead, and that all he had was a fool's mission and a fool's hope. He knelt and breathed slowly. He recalled that first feeling of standing beyond the temple walls and the freedom that went with it. He was here under that same freedom, he reminded himself. He was here because he chose to be. He reached out and took the meat. He ate silently. When he was done, he filled his bowl with ice and drank its cool water. He replaced his mask.

"I am ready."

The wraith nodded and they stepped out into the world beyond. Immediately, hot stale air hit him and caused Kuai to wrinkle his nose. A thin sulphurous stream bubbled by the cave mouth. The sky above was striated shades of orange, thick lemon yellow and remorseless red. All the shadows went to purple under its strange colour. Kuai recalled his brother's words from last night and flexed his fists in his gloves, he forced the cold through his veins and build a thick wrap of ice about his chest.

Kuai saw horizons pointed like the ribcages of fallen giants. Speeding toward those skylines were rivers of blood that contorted with the faces of those fallen long ago. The low moans of their agony slunk by with the slow flow of the stream. Rock and baked, cracked earth reared in slumped stacks that had shaped themselves to the suffering all around. They resembled shocked skulls and grasping fingers, like a body newly burned and disbelieving. Kuai wondered if that had been his brother's expression as he died here; prematurely brought to this realm and roasted to death by the undead servant of Quan Chi, Scorpion. He hardened inside with cold anger. His anger was only momentary as he looked at the howling skull rocks. Bi-Han had died here alone, far from the realm of mortals, and the peace of the winter they both loved. He had died with the sight of what was about to come lined up about him ready to take a piece of him. _I should have been there for him. I should have been there to stop this._ _I am here this time. You're taking your own fate into your hands once more. This time I won't let you do it alone. Even if it kills us. You're not alone this time._

The fortress reached as a spiked, black crown clawing for a dawn that never graced the sky. The red ripples of sliding lava lit its obsidian obelisks with the memory of flames.

"Nice place." Kuai Liang whispered.

"Quiet!" Bi-Han snapped. Kuai heard something like fear in his brother's voice. His insides sunk. His brother was not easily disturbed. This was going to be every bit as bad as it looked. "In there, if you so much as _breathe_ and it's heard..."

Kuai looked at him with sudden concern. He was definitely going to have to breathe. He had not thought of that as a problem until now.

"Don't worry." The wraith read him easily, "I have everything under control. Just do exactly as you're told and there will be no problems. Understood?"

Kuai nodded shortly. His eyes returned to the pinnacles of the fortress.

"Follow behind with Saibot when we first enter. Do as he does. When we are before Quan Chi-"

"Can't I stay outside? It would be so much easier, I could at least stay outside whilst you went in to see Quan-"

" _Don't interrupt me._ "

"Sorry." Kuai said without thinking.

"When we are before Quan Chi, walk beside me. You do not have to mimic my movements, but only look straight forward. And do not look the sorcerer in the eye. I will deal with all else. It is imperative that you do this. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Bi-Han." He said automatically, then retracted in realisation, "Sorry, I mean-"

"Quiet. From now on, only quiet."

Kuai immediately bent himself into stealth, ready to move in perfect silence. The wraith shook his head in exasperation and strode boldly forward. Kuai hesitated before following suit. All his instincts cried for him to move with an assassin's stealth. As the black towers loomed closer he had to keep reminding himself that in this place he was not Lin Kuei. He was the shadow of a creature that prided its place in a demonic hierarchy. Noob Saibot did not sneak anywhere he could stride through and look down on another creature as he did so.

Kuai felt giddy as they walked the steep ascending path that wound up to the fortress. Magma rose to giant globules and burst in rains of fire far below them. Above, the sheer fingers of cruel towers cast all into deep shadow. For the first time, Kuai felt comforted by the way these shadows writhed and bent about this brother, collecting in his footsteps and shaping themselves to his will. _This is his place_ , he kept reminding himself. _He knows what he's doing_. The fortress looked so large from the outside. _So much larger than the Lin Kuei Temple._ He thought of Bi-Han sneaking him out to see the temple in all its glory. _I hope you sneak us out of this place as well as in. One too many of us has already died in this forsaken realm._

* * *

 **Author Note:** Lots of imagery drawn from Dante's Inferno for this story. Next chapter also draws on old English fairy stories. And MK Mythologies of course. In lots of ways this is a parallel to Mythologies :)


	3. Guests of the Necromancer

Corridors were like black forests. Passages were oppressively narrow and intimidatingly tall. When Kuai Liang looked up he could not make out a roof. He quickly returned his attention forward when he felts the cold oily grip of the shade on his elbow steering him forward. Nothing moved, and yet everything moved. All was tall sheer stone, barren and still, yet it flickered with a green light the source of which always eluded them. Deeper corners echoed with the rumble of distant howling. Kuai's skin crawled. A foreboding dread was rising within him. He schooled it to remain calm, but even a lifetime of training had not prepared him for this. At intervals the screams from below rang out so vibrant that the walls resonated and distorted with them, and the green fire curled like live stoked flames and ran mad up into the deep shafts of nowhere above. As he tried to keep his pace even and cool amidst the bending reality about him, he found himself comforted by the firmness of the grip keeping him straight. _Just give me some demons to fight. Fists, feet, the ground and an opponent. Those are odds I can deal with. And hurry it up before the last of my ice melts and I become one too many above zero._

Their corridor abruptly opened into a wide hall-way. After the confines of the passage, it looked naked and revealing. Kuai blinked several times, trying to readjust his eyes. When nothing changed, he realised that the floor here sloped at an almost imperceptible gradient, sending the lines of perspective off at curious angles. The darkness always followed them and curled and bent toward his brother. It kept out the leering twist of the disembodied green flames that moved as hosts upon the stonework. Kuai fought hard not to flow with his instincts into the obscurity that stealth would lend him. _Straight and proud. Walk straight and proud. Like you're Sub-Zero and not Tundra. He always did kind of strut about the place._ Kuai's eyes did a double take when he saw a woman enter the chamber. She had the same kind of misplaced beauty to her that the woman called Sareena did. As if they did not quite belong and their whole form had undergone a tilt-shift that sent the eye to a different place. Her eyes flicked briefly over them as they passed. Noob Saibot did not acknowledge her. _Maybe Quan Chi is tired of flaming skulls and horned monsters. Maybe he turned all the demons into beautiful women. Maybe he'll turn Bi-Han into a beautiful woman. Maybe a sister would be easier to get along with._ The heat was rising in his limbs. He shook his head faintly to clear his head. The shade's grip turned painful. Kuai grimaced under his mask. He knew this was getting risky, but it was Bi-Han that had taken the risk – if he had his way he would have stayed in that cave chewing human flesh or whatever that was. He tried not to think about it. He clenched his fists and let cool fractals collect under his gloves. He pushed the ice up to his chest and froze the thinning layer of ice wrapped around him. The wraith stopped walking. Kuai and the shade did likewise. Kuai finished re-enforcing the ice about him. As soon as he had done so, the wraith began walking again. He was striding purposefully toward a set of double doors at the far end of the hall. The angle of the floor meant that they walked ever so slightly up to approach it.

The doors were black stone with gold enamel that picked out silent faces rearing through the dark as if trying to escape a doom that forever held them imprisoned. The wraith placed his hand on the door. He turned his face silently, just enough for his eyes to meet Kuai's. They were the same, empty white irises. Kuai searched in them, earnestly seeking for something, anything else. When his brother broke the gaze, Kuai did not feel like that search had been in vain. Noob Saibot pushed the double doors open with forceful intent. He strode forth with a vanity Kuai knew neither of them felt. Kuai kept pace with him, step perfectly in time. Noob's true shadow had, for the present, vanished.

The walls in this room leaned slightly outward, Kuai surmised. Either that or he was suffering from sunstroke. The room was lined with pillars that supported a ribbed dome roof. A dais and a bone throne stood at the far end of the chamber. Two doors lead off to either side in perfect symmetry. To one side of the throne lounged the lithe woman they had met earlier on the road. She was wearing much more full attire now and somehow she suited this place. Kuai kept his face impassive. Standing behind the throne, with his back to them, Kuai could make out the ghostly pale skin of a man. He was muscled in a thin, hard, cruel way, and marked with red symbols that looked like half written incantations to old secrets. He turned abruptly and stepped forth from the gloom. Black tattoos rung his eyes and shot back across his bare scalp like the shadows of spears before war. This was Quan Chi, Kuai knew.

"Noob Saibot." The sorcerer's voice was amused, deep and melodious. It sounded like it was used to darker things, and was striving now to remember how to form words for conversation rather than raising unspeakable horrors.

"Master." He heard his brother say. Kuai realised in horror that the wraith beside him was kneeling, head bowed in deference. Quan Chi was watching them with interest. _It's too late to kneel. Act cool. Think cool._ He kept his features impassive and folded his arms, looking straight forward. _Just what that proud bastard would do. Kneel with his body and shout defiance with his shadow_. Quan Chi seemed to think so too. He merely raised and eyebrow and moved on.

"You are a little... later than I expected." The sorcerer came to a stand before his brother. The wraith did not look up.

"I was not expecting your summons so soon."

"And yet Sareena met you shortly after you re-entered Netherrealm, and informed you of my will. She offered to escort you home, perhaps if you had taken up the suggestion she might have shown you a quicker route?"

A shudder went down Kuai's spine despite Quan Chi's light tone. The sorcerer glanced at him. Kuai kept his attention straight forward. He felt the weight of those eyeballs boring into his skull. He stopped the air moving in his body and held an absolute, immobile silence. The moment held like water droplets on a taught thread. In his peripheral vision he saw the sorcerer slowly turn back to the wraith. Kuai did not dare let out the breath pent up in his chest.

"You would send that treacherous _filth_ to deal with me?!" The wraith's head had snapped up. Kuai could hear genuine anger in his brother's voice.

"At least I know where I stand with Sareena." Quan Chi had turned around and was walking back towards the throne.

Noob stood,

"I have shown you _nothing_ but loyalty, whilst _she_ has betrayed you countless times."

"Once even for your sake, if I remember correctly."

" _Enough!_ " The wraith snarled in a voice that almost made Kuai flinch with the memory of being on the receiving end of that temper. "Make her leave! She _insults_ me with her very presence here!" The wraith stepped forward as he spoke, his fist gesticulating in anger.

Kuai was confused by the dynamic in the room. The woman, Sareena, had a curious expression on her face; it was something like hurt and grief and indignation. Quan Chi seated himself and regarded his spectre over steeped hands.

"As you wish." He said with that same slow melodious voice that sounded as if it was treating with children. He motioned with his eyes for Sareena to leave. She stormed out. "I think you hurt her feelings." The sorcerer drawled, "Perhaps she still has some for you."

Kuai could feel the anger radiating off his brother. The wraith controlled himself however and returned to stand next to Kuai.

"I still expect an explanation for your tardiness." The patience was replaced by a thin layer of anger Kuai was ready to bet could rival Bi-Han's if provoked.

"And I have one for you." The wraith said easily, "I have something to show you... or rather someone."

Kuai Liang felt all the colour drain from his face and his body go numb. He remained absolutely still. _You wouldn't... surely you wouldn't... this is too contrived even for you... would he? He might..._ He felt his chest constrict as he thought of his naivety. He had walked into this. He had done this to himself. He had been the one fool enough to put trust into an undead creature enslaved to the underworld just because it bore residual ties to a brother he had once loved. _And now you will die for it. Sektor was right. You should have purged your emotions from you._

"I am late because I was mastering a new skill that the powers you have given me," the wraith bowed slightly, "...Allowed me to create. I meant for such a thing to be more perfected before demonstrating its utility to you. No doubt you are also wondering why I entered an Earthrealm portal without your permission. I needed to test my new abilities on something mortal. Those I killed will not draw any notice, I assure you. I hope that with this new strength, Master, you will find more ways to put me to good use." As he said this, his shadow walked out of his body so that all three of them stood before the throne. Quan Chi tilted his head in interest. Noob continued, "I will soon be able to maintain my second clone with full combat prowess. Perhaps if you doubt my loyalty you will allow me to give you a demonstration. I could for instance, rip Sareena's spine out for you?"

Quan Chi gave a long low laugh.

Kuai felt strangely distant from them both, and for the first time realised truly what an imposter he was in this place.

"You never cease to amuse, Noob Saibot. What you lack in obedience you more than make up for in diligence. I have never regretted raising you to serve me. Granted, you've never been as easy to control as Scorpion, but when it comes down to it, you and I see eye to eye on a great number of things."

Kuai noticed the flicker of the wraith's hand gesture and this time was able to catch the meaning. The wraith, his shadow and his brother all bowed in perfect unison.

"You are dismissed. But no more travelling between realms without my permission. For the present you are confined to the fortress."

The wraith slowly looked up.

"Master?"

"The fortress. So that your seditious streak may stew away in a hole until you are keenly compliant and eager to follow all I say down to the letter."

"You cannot-"

"If you would prefer the ninth plane, please say so, I know there to be a lot more leg room there."

There was silence.

"I thought so." Quan Chi said coldly, "Now leave."

The three turned and left.

Kuai did not dare do anything save silence his footsteps and keep his brother within arms reach. The wraith was leading him deeper and deeper into the bowels of the fortress. Each turn of a corridor or crack of an open door shared secrets had had not wished to know. Space distorted here and great breadths fitted into places that should have been small as cupboards. Once they skirted the curve of a sturdy stone wall that he took to be the exterior of a staircase. He glimpsed what lay within as they passed an ajar doorway. An enormous dark space was filled with nothing at all, save the slow procession of gaunt, grey, ghastly figures spiralling eternally upward, gliding on a path that did not exist. He paused on seeing the spectacle but his brother's shadow steered him on with a firm hand. He saw in another instance more grim, clammy figures, with bodies that were somewhere between ethereal fleeting light and sporadic morbid puppets. They chased something only they could see about a bare and empty room. Their faces were fixated on their invisible quarry, hands outstretched ravenously, concentration ripe in their eyes. The pads of their feet made strangely dulled sounds as they ran their circles around and around. Again Kuai's eyes widened. The disturbing oddness and repetition of the picture locked his interest in repulsed fascination. The familiar pressure on his arm pulled him on, and this time his brother came close to his ear so that his mask almost touch him.

"Do not linger with those who are trapped, or you will join them." His whisper was soft.

Kuai shuddered and tore his eyes away. He kept his head down from then on, allowing himself to be lead on into a labyrinth that became darker, and the heat more intense. He could feel rolling swathes of faintness move over him as he breathed the dry, stifling air. At last, when Kuai could see almost nothing at all, his brother opened a cell door. It grated as it moved across stone. The wraith shut it behind them.

All was absolutely black. Kuai could feel the place alive around him. His heart beat loudly through his skull. The shadows pulled back suddenly, leaving a space around him that belong neither to light or dark. Kuai could faintly see the shape of his brother.

"The shadows, at least, belong to me." The wraith's voice was quiet, but not anxious. Kuai was unsure if this meant a break in their prior arrangement that he not speak at all within the fortress walls, "We have a little privacy here." His brother said, as though reading these thoughts. Kuai let out a long sigh. As he did so he realised how exhausted his limbs were. He ground his teeth in frustration. In Earthrealm he could force his body to go for days without essential needs. Here, it seemed, he was constantly being sapped of strength and power. He sat down heavily.

"I should not be here. I should not be in this fortress, in this realm..." His voice sounded strange, but that was perhaps because he hadn't used it in hours. The oddity of the things he had seen, the powerlessness he felt in this place... He steadied his breathing, "I am weakened very quickly here. I don't know what it is, I..." _Bi-Han will not hear the excuses anyway_. He looked away in frustration.

"I know." Kuai looked up. The wraith's eyes were dim white fires in the dark of the cell. "Netherrealm is not a place for the living. It drains much from mortals who enter it. It preys on them and seeks to right the anomaly of the living in the place of the dead."

"If you knew this, then why did you bring me here?"

"Because I expect you to overcome this difficulty and aid me regardless. And it was better to calculate the addition of a weakened Lin Kuei cryomancer than it was to enlist the aid of a Netherrealmer. We have an uncanny habit of turning on one another at opportune moments. This is a delicate operation. One that will see me imprisoned in a plane of torture for a very long time if it is not seen through correctly. I think you see my dilemma."

Kuai had found a wall and was leaning against it. It had a pleasant chill to it in contrast to the tight hot air of the room. He let his strained limbs go limp against its welcome relief.

"What made you think I would agree to aid you?"

The wraith tilted his head,

"Of course you would help me. That was always obvious to me."

Kuai stared at him, his sleepiness forgotten,

"It... it was?" It certainly had not been obvious to him. He had deliberated for days over whether to meet with the spectre.

"You have always been easy to manipulate. Though I admit I considered it a possibility you might be less enamoured with me now that I am dead. I thought perhaps your idolisation might have died with me."

"I did not _idolise_ -"

"But then, fortunately, that mutated into something even more useful. A guilt complex and a saviour syndrome. You were always going to snap up the bait, Kuai Liang."

Kuai stared daggers at him for a long moment. Then he looked away. His insides felt like they had been severed into thin ribbons. He set his expression hard to hide the jolting pain those words cut inside him. Everything he endured in this place was that bit harder for hearing that. He knew when he agreed that it would be like this. He knew this was the deal all along and that using him for his own ends had always been Bi-Han's intention. He supposed it was the fractional moments when he was different that made it all the harder. Just for a few seconds before they had entered Quan Chi's throne room, he had been sure that a kindred desperate determination had united them once more. He rested his cheek against the black stone,

"What will you do now that you're forbidden from leaving the fortress?" His voice was monotone, he was under no illusions though, they both knew he was upset.

"Leave anyway. As quickly as... _humanly_ possible." Kuai Liang did not even bother rising to that. "Sleep, now. I doubt you will be able to eat. But you can at least drink and sleep."

"I'm not sleeping in this place! Did you see what's out there? I have no intention of winding up in some undead rite for eternity because I was sleeping!"

"I will keep watch."

"Oh, well now I feel much safer." Sarcasm dripped off his words. The wraith looked at him. Kuai turned away, still raw from the put down earlier.

"Go to sleep, Kuai Liang." Bi-Han said.

Kuai Liang lay down and slept.

* * *

The candle was flaring and sputtering with the draft that sifted under the door. Shivers of winter mountain air toyed with its struggling flame. Kuai could feel his attention drooping, he blinked and narrowed his eyes to refocus them on the book he was reading. He stifled a yawn and drew his rug up to his chin. The bamboo mat beneath him kept him warm from the stone floor of his room. All here was minimalistic and stark; an aesthetic that sent one's focus internal and pushed the unnecessary to the periphery. The wooden door opened noiselessly and strong gust of wind blew white flakes into the room before it was quickly shut again.

"What are you doing up?" Bi-Han scowled down at him as he dumped a small bag and began unstrapping the gauntlets from his arms.

"Waiting for you." Kuai kept his attention on the book. "You always wake me up anyway when you let the cold in."

His brother grunted and sat himself down on his own mat on the other side of the room. He tossed the gauntlets to one side and began to take off his greaves.

"Actually I wanted to ask a question."

"Do you ever stop?" The greaves came off with a clatter on stone.

Kuai closed the book and set it to one side then rolled onto his stomach and propped his chin up with both hands.

"It's about assassinating people." Kuai watched his brother as he reverently unstrapped his sword and held it up for inspection. "Why do we kill people?"

His brother set him with an unimpressed stare.

"Put this away." Bi-Han held out the sword. Kuai jumped up and took the weapon carefully, eyeing it with the same adoration his brother had. He carefully laid it in a built-in stone shelf on the far wall. When he turned back, his brother was standing and tugging off his tunic.

"You know why." He pulled the blue cloth off and tossed it to one side, "Because the Grandmaster commands it."

"Yes, but why does the Grandmaster command it?"

His brother backhanded him suddenly across the face. Pain smarted through Kuai's head. He staggered and fell to the ground. His hand went to his cheek and he looked up. His brother was fuming.

" _Never_ question the Grandmaster! Do you understand!?"

Kuai blinked several times at the stinging in his cheek and nodded miserably. He sat stunned for a moment where he had fallen. He slunk round the edge of the room and back to his bed where he pulled his rug over him and curled toward the wall. Something dangerously close to tears threatened to form in the corners of his eyes. It wasn't because he had been struck though. It was because of the anger and shock in his brother's face. He turned over where he lay and watched his brother take off the vented mask and set it to one side.

"I... I didn't mean to question the Grandmaster, Bi-Han. I didn't mean it like that. I only wanted to know why our only purpose is to kill. Not that I doubt the Grandmaster, I just don't understand _why_ – surely the Lin Kuei must have killed all our enemies by now? Who else is left out there to oppose us? We're killing because its good for the clan, aren't we? We're just defending our honour and territory, right? Only I was thinking about it all today and the last three nights, and I was suddenly worried that we might not... be... good people. And that what we're doing might be... wrong... It's... it's not though, is it, Bi-Han?"

His brother set him again with dangerous eyes. Kuai shrunk into his blanket, but kept a stubborn, determined gaze fixed on Bi-Han. His brother levelled a finger at him,

"You need to make _very_ sure you never talk this way in front of anyone. You would be severely punished if anyone heard you talking like this."

"I know that – that's that's why I waited up to ask _you_. Please explain it to me – it's confusing me so much and I nearly got distracted in a fight today because I was thinking about it too hard. We're not bad people are we? We don't do bad things... do we, Bi-Han?"

His brother sighed with tested patience,

"Give me that book."

Kuai looked down at the volume. He picked it up and handed it to his brother warily. Bi-Han drew it back as if to hit him with it and Kuai flinched away. His brother laughed and opened it instead.

"Jerk." Kuai muttered.

"Do you know what this is?"

"Just a history book. I have to read it for a class."

"A history book. History is written by people who are strong, Kuai Liang. It's written by people like the Lin Kuei. And we can write it down anyway we like, because there's no one else left alive to challenge us. We stay apart from the rest of the world so that their flaws do not taint the purity of our way of life. Out there people claim to think in terms of good and bad because they are embarrassed to remember that they still live and operate in a world where there is only power and those strong enough to wield it. Make sure you're on the side of the strong, Kuai Liang. The Lin Kuei will not tolerate you asking questions. They will mistake you for one of the weak people who stand in their way. They only recognise others with power like themselves."

Kuai Liang looked up at him with wide eyes,

"I'm not weak," He protested.

Bi-Han handed him back the book,

"Then prove it."

* * *

When he awoke he could see nothing. There was complete darkness. He raised his hand before his face but could not see it. All he could hear was his own breathing loud and fast.

"What do you dream of?"

Kuai 's eyes swung wildly in search of the speaker. Slowly, his deprived sense recalled where he was. The shadows retreated around him as a figure blacker than all of them gathered them to him.

"You mutter and turn over as you sleep. You did last night as well. What do you dream of?"

Kuai growled in frustration. He breathed in deep and slowed his beating heart. He took out his shallow bowl and filled it with ice. He drank from it when it melted. The cool water felt good. The hot stinging air had dried out his throat. He repeated and drank again and again. His brother sat patiently watching him, apparently still waiting to be answered.

"Unwanted memories." He said coldly and stowed the bowl.

The wraith tilted his head,

"Memories?" The wraith considered this. Kuai strapped on his greaves and did not look up. "I do not sleep any more. Neither to I dream. Or remember."

Kuai watched him guardedly. He picked up his gauntlets and tightened them onto his forearms.

"Tell me about your dreams."

Kuai stared at him,

"No!" He flexed his hand and balled it into a fist, testing the binding on his arms.

"Why?"

"Well for one, they mostly involve you being a total bastard. Like this place is trying to remind how much you never gave a damn about anything." He regretted saying that. It came out with much more emotion than he meant it to. He also felt a twinge of guilt. This was the most civil the wraith had been to him yet and he was being bitter about an event that had happened years ago. "Where's my mask. It's pitch black in here, I can't see anything."

His brother picked it up and held it out to him. Kuai snatched it and tied it on. When he was done he realised the wraith was still staring at him.

"What?!" He ground his teeth again. It was very rare that his temper got the better of him like this.

"You're being unfair. I make no excuses for my present motivations, but it was not the case in life that I cared for nothing."

"Is that so."

"It is."

"Well, you had a funny way of showing it."

The wraith looked at him blankly. He folded his arms. The gesture made Kuai feel small again and he hated that even now he felt belittled.

"I kept you alive, Kuai Liang."

"You did nothing but put me down."

"Now you sound like a spoilt child. I shielded you from an authority that would have cut your throat before you were ten if they heard half the dissidence that came out your mouth. So sometimes I used a firm hand, it was nothing to what the Grandmaster would have done to you."

"I don't mean that. I mean the way you always looked down on me, always told me I was weak."

"To make you work harder. To make you be better than you thought you could be."

"You told me there was no such thing as right and wrong. That there was only power and weakness."

"That's true."

"And now you're in hell!"

"But soon I'll be master of it."

Kuai Liang let out a roar of frustration and punched the floor. It turned to ice and stretched glittering and cold across the rock heated by the undying flames of the afterlife.

"Quiet. Someone will hear." The wraith stood, his posture was one that had already moved on.

"Why don't you ever understand!? Why do you always have to be like this!? It might just be that there's someone else other that yourself worth listening to every once in a while!"

"Someone like you?"

Kuai flushed red,

"Bi-Han-"

"Save it. I sense a salvation speech coming on. Excuse me if I sound bored, I am. And I have a revolution to plan."

"I hate seeing you in this place. I hate what it's done to you."

"It's done nothing to me, Kuai Liang. I choose to be what I am. A wiser man would know that."

"Then a wiser man still would know he could choose to be different."

"Are you going to come or do I have to leave you for the oni to find?"

"I'm coming."

They moved as shadows in the lower levels of the fortress. Kuai Liang was finally in territory he knew well and excelled at. Being unseen was in his arsenal. The air was hotter and dryer here, but the stone was cool and made moving bearable. In the almost permanent darkness there were no tricks of light and perspective to confuse him. They made fast progress through the network of tunnels Noob Saibot led them down.

Kuai felt the air begin to stir about him. He suspected there was a deep cave passage they were aiming to exit from. He heard a soft clipped whistle. He knew the sound intimately. It was one of a long series the Lin Kuei used when multiple assassins were co-ordinating in the dark. He obediently split off and kept close to the far wall, coming round to the other side of a tunnel mouth that crossed their path. He saw the shape of his brother lean slightly to glance down the passage. Another low whistle sent Kuai along to the next tunnel entrance. When he checked it, he saw a faint red glow lighting the raw rock walls. He whistled that all was clear. He received the go ahead to move down it. He sent out another message asking for his partner's position. He heard that he was in a parallel passage that would meet further along. Kuai suddenly felt his hair crawl. Something was not right. _Signal it_ , he immediately thought. _No. It's Bi-Han. I'm not signalling until I know there's a problem._ The other voice in his head objected, _You'd signal it to Smoke._ He narrowed his eyes _, Smoke never froze me into an iceberg when I made a bad call._ He heard a footstep. _Damn it._ He whistled. There was silence. If Bi-Han had heard it he would be keeping his position quiet as he moved in to locate the threat.

She appeared before him with surprising stealth. Kuai stopped himself just in time to prevent his instinct summoning ice into long knives. Instead he stood still and folded his arms. Before him was Sareena. Up close he could see the crescent moon markings through her eyes. She held herself with self assurance but there was a tiredness to that stance, as if this had all happened before.

"Going somewhere?" She raised an eyebrow, "Quan Chi expected as much. He sent me to check that you were still suitably entertained."

Kuai narrowed his eyes. Speaking might give him away if she knew his brother as well as she appeared to, while provoking an attack in the fortress might bring about problems of its own.

He opted for the only other option he could think of. He walked calmly toward her.

"Don't make this more difficult for yourself, Bi-Han. You know what happens when we defy him." There was that tone of voice again, the one that kept catching Kuai off guard, the one that sounded so genuine, and like she really cared for him – for Bi-Han that was. He ignored her, the way Bi-Han would have done. She stretched out a hand to stop him. He grabbed it, twisted it and locked it up. She did a high fall over her arm and rolled out it.

"Dammit! What good can come of your perpetual defiance!?"

 _Perpetual?_ That perplexed Kuai. His brother had always been good at following orders. He had always had ambition too, but he was one of the conniving sorts who bided time and rose through ranks. _Open defiance is only ever reprimanded._ Those had been his very words to Kuai on more than one occasion. She drew back into a high guarded stance.

"Enough of this. I won't report this if you turn around now."

 _Where is Bi-Han?_ His brother should have intervened by now. He stalked slowly toward her. She kept a split guard, with one fist behind her head and the other pulled across toward her first elbow. This left her face temptingly exposed. He closed the distance and threw a jab straight for her head. The compressed guard pulled open with lightning speed, the front arm covering his punch and opening up her body for all the momentum to come straight through with her back hand. He leant out the way and dodged it just in time, throwing out a foot to sweep her front leg in the hope that the force of her punch might send her falling. To his surprise, she deliberately dropped both hands to the floor, swung her legs through and kicked him hard in the chin. He hissed and staggered backward. She was faster than he expected. He settled into a deeper stance. He drew one hand back and turned the other outward.

"What's this? A little different from normal?" She was light on her feet, quick and flexible. He braced when he saw her weight shift. He took another kick to the face and grunted as it jarred his jaw. As he guessed, she did not propel through the kick but kept her high stance and weight on her back foot in order to kick back a second time, this time with her front foot. As she did so, he seized her leg and dropped his body weight into the move, sending his elbow through her thigh. He heard her let out a cry and used the sound to pin point a target for a back fist. He caught her across the face with it. She rammed the heel of her boot into his spine. His back arched and he released her as he flexed in pain. She vaulted out of his reach and he span around to face her.

"Not at all your usual style." Her eyes narrowed.

She had switched up her stance. She was leaning onto her back leg, the one he hadn't nearly shattered a bone in. He came in cautiously testing for another jab like he had opened with. When he saw her eyes engage on the movement. He snapped out a high kick straight into the same point he had elbowed on her front leg. She lost her balance and staggered backwards. She would have regained her balance, but he was ready. He threw a heavy punch to her head. She half redirected it with the remnants of her broken guard. He sent in another from his other hand, then kept pushing forward landing punch after punch. In the exertion his breath came in cold wreaths of fine mist escaping from the closed up vents of his black mask. She seemed to keep taking his punches, managing to twist her body to keep herself upright even though she had not yet fended off his onslaught. Enraged, he strengthened his fist with a thick coat of ice beneath the glove. He sent an upper cut to her jaw that threw her into the air. He caught her and slammed her into the wall, pinning her with one arm, he drew back his fist.

"Who are you?" She whispered. He faltered. She grasped his hand where it held her. She pinned it to her chest and swivelled. He dropped to one knee as the lock went through his fingers and wrist, wrenching them hard. She isolated his little finger and closed a fist around it. He froze a layer of ice over it before he could think. She released it quickly in surprise, looking at his gloved hand in confusion.

"Cold..?" She said in dismay.

He struck out with his legs and swept her out of the height advantage she had over him and rolled out of the way.

"It's not possible." She said, "You lost that... you lost..." She got up slowly as he recovered. "You lost the ice the same day you lost your compassion."

His eyes flashed in anger and he snarled in frustration. He batted her guard out the way, punched her in the gut, then the face and kept going. He slowed when he realised the spirit had gone out of her fight. He slammed her against the wall again.

"You aren't him." She said bluntly, breathing hard and licking blood from a split lip. He growled and pushed his forearm against her neck. She tried to laugh around the choke, "I don't know... _hah_ \- who you are, but you should know... he's not worth it." Kuai bared his teeth behind his mask. She studied him, "He'll spit your help right back in your face." He fixed piercing eyes on hers and they locked in tight combat. He hunted in them, looking to read her. She relented and stopped struggling.

"If you love him as I do then you will not stand in my way." Kuai spoke for the first time. He held on a moment longer, then let go. She gasped and bent over, receiving air into her bruised throat.

She shook her hair as she looked up at him.

"He is gone. There is nothing left of Bi-Han in him. I tried. Believe me, I tried. But in the end I had to give up."

He stood back from her and pointed his finger in accusation.

"And that is why you failed!"

He stormed off down the passage way.

She caught her breath and straightened. She ran her hand over her throat and sighed. She turned and walked back toward the fortress.

* * *

 **Author Note:** I find things creepier when they are odd and repetitive and distorted versions of human behaviour rather than straight up gore, so I went with a depiction in Quan Chi's fortress that picked out some of the more peculiar rather than gruesome elements of Dante's Inferno. I also recently watch Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell so wanted some of that old creepy fairy mind game feel to the place as well. There's one (of the few) moments I like in Inferno where Virgil says to Dante, go and talk with that guy, and then says, oh but not too long, or you'll get stuck here forever because you indulged in watching other people's suffering and this isn't a place for living people to linger in. Ace. I'm having that.


	4. Rebellion

He came to a full stop when his passage abruptly ended. The great red heat expanse of Netherrealm stretched out before him. A long, straight drop into a furnace of bubbling lava was directly below. His teeth set against each other as he glanced around. Sheer cliff on all sides. There was the passage behind, but he had little desire to see which side Sareena felt inclined to favour. Quan Chi's fortress seemed to rise out of a molten crater. The lip of the crater was on about the same level as his passage mouth, but hundreds of yards of empty space lay between him and it. It was possible he might span it with a bridge of ice, but quite apart from giving away his identity, it was unlikely he could freeze the whole distance. He might be able to scale the cliff down, but then it would be him and his ice against the magma churning below. _Damn it, where are you Bi-Han?_ He glanced all around. There was still no sign of Noob Saibot. A slow unpleasant feeling was tingling at the back of his throat as he contemplated trying to get out of this realm alone. _He wouldn't leave me. It would make no sense. He needs me. He's gone through the effort to get me this far._ He gave the Lin Kuei whistle searching for his partner's location, but did so softly, fearing to draw attention to himself. He could feel the heat getting to him again and it collided hard with the vertigo of the drop. He backed away from the edge.

A black shadow pooled on the floor beside him and a figure leapt up out from it. Kuai Liang turned abruptly.

"Where-!?"

The wraith whipped out a hand and clasped it tight at the back of his neck, jolting Kuai's head forward and cutting off his words. When he had his attention, the wraith lifted a finger to his mask for silence. Noob Saibot released him then leaned over the drop, looking down below. Kuai cursed inwardly and rubbed the back of his neck where two pressure points had been painfully gripped. The wraith motioned to him. He looked over the edge warily and squinted at where his brother indicated. There looked to be a very small narrow ledge some way down the tower. He turned to acknowledge the wraith but saw an already decisive look in his eyes. Kuai Liang had all of a few seconds to realise what was happening as his brother wrapped his arms around him and tugged him down into a black portal. Immediately all went dark and Kuai felt as though he were being squeezed down an impossibly thin tube. All the air left his body so that he could not even gasp for breath. He slid out and his feet hit hard rock. He reeled and if the grip around him had not remained tight he would have plummeted immediately off the narrow ledge he now stood on. He was breathing hard. He looked up and narrowed his eyes against the flaring light to see the passageway they had been in as a small black circle in the tower far above.

"Some warning next time?" He gasped quietly.

"This is your warning." The wraith hissed in his ear. Kuai's eyes widened and he again felt the world slide to absolute blackness. The constricting, suffocating dark clamped down on all his limbs and crushed the new air from his lungs. He could feel his eyes straining at their sockets and his brother's arms become insubstantial as shadow about him. This time the ground beneath him shook and trembled. Noob Saibot released him at the bottom of the crater where ridged, angular, igneous rock quaked next to the roll and rumble of thick lava beside them. Kuai backed away and bent double.

"You bastard."

"Quiet. We're not out of here yet." The wraith surveyed their new position. The crater rim seemed an eternity high from down here. Its shadowy auburn scar stood silhouette dark against the tiger bright orange of the sky beyond. Kuai could feel the heat rolling off the magma in thick, tangible waves. Molten gold blobs blazed in amid the black sludge of liquid rock that moved on its turgid, lazy, viscous surface. When he blinked, dark spots flashed across his vision. He summoned moisture to his hands to cool into ice. The air was so hot and dry that he felt only a soft chill against his fingers. His heart pounded. He had never not been able to summon ice. His breath came faster through his mask. He moved close to the wraith.

"We need to move quickly." He said softly.

"I am aware." Came the cold response as Noob Saibot continued calculating their exit.

"I mean... very quickly."

The wraith glanced at him. Kuai felt the eyes flick over him, judging his condition and recognising the problem. He hated their quick, empty assessment of his weakness. Noob returned to the sea of lava and resumed his study. When he turned back he had that look in his eye again.

"One moment," Kuai Liang backed off. The look got colder. The wraith's shadow stalked toward him, "Can you at least tell me what you plan to-"

A dark plunging gullet and the scream of true silence. He burst new born from the womb of the shadowy portal. His feet flashed into pain and he barely had time to register his shock and surprise as he looked down. A melting rock, liquefying into magma was beneath him. He was in the middle of the bubbling crater belly of lava, with only bright, hot, red, smashed gold and crusty burnt dark about him.

The now merciful blackness took him again – relieving his scorched feet, and causing his body to shudder as the breath he had not had time to take was constricted further from his lungs.

This time the heat was unbearable. He felt his feet immediately blister into agony and his vision swam to an almost instant blackness.

He was jerked quickly back into consciousness as he was squeezed again through another tight tube of oily slick nothing.

The rock was solid and bearable beneath him again, but he stumbled with the flaming pain still bursting in the soles of his feet. He was faintly aware that he was on the other side of the crater of lava, but all he could think of was trying to relieve the burning and pressure against his feet. He sunk against the wall and made to kneel. The wraith gripped him,

"Not yet." He said.

Kuai heard something like a plea escape from his lips as he pulled away from the grasp. He struggled as the wraith's shadow pinned him from behind. They made another two jumps through portals, each taking them up the further cliff of the crater. When they reach the top Noob Saibot finally let him go. Kuai dropped to the floor and reached for his feet – the soles of his shoes had gone, revealing red, raw blistering skin peeling and flaring and thick with half-cauterised blood.

"Ice." His brother gently reminded.

"I can't!"

"You can here. Try."

It took an extraordinary amount of will to focus and summon ice to himself. He ripped off his gloves and pressed the ice to the ruined soles of his feet. For a few seconds the burning was numbed, then a new pain set in as the fierce cold met the lingering heat. Kuai squeezed his eyes shut as he kept the ice flowing thick. He encased his feet several inches thick and let the true numbing start. When the pain had subsided he looked up at his brother. The wraith's eyes twitched at the corners with wincing grimaces, Kuai realised. His brother too was collapsed on the ground. Kuai cold not see the extent of the damage to the wraith's feet as everything internal and external seemed the same monochrome black, but he knew when his brother was hiding hurt.

"Let me help you."

It must have been some injury indeed, because the wraith did not object when Kuai bent his power to freezing his soles also. When Kuai was done he laid back on the dry red earth. He never thought he would ever be happy to be anywhere on Netherrealm soil, but right now this moment felt like one stolen from heaven and not taken from hell.

"What... what just happened?"

The wraith did not answer at first, and Kuai saw his eternally white bright eyes lid over for a long pause of peace.

"The back exit from Quan Chi's fortress."

"There wasn't a back exit, was there."

"There wasn't. But there is now."

Kuai groaned,

"What did you do to me? It feels like I have no feet."

"I was looking for another half liquefied rock to teleport onto, but there wasn't one."

"So..."

"There's a lot of surface tension to lava."

Kuai rolled over and looked at him.

"Are you joking... you teleported us _into_ the lava?"

"Onto. Not into. Wasn't sure it would work. Now we know."

Kuai groaned again and curled his arms over his face.

"We need to keep going we're too exposed here. I know a place we can rest that is not far."

"I can't walk."

"Portals it is then."

"I can walk. I'm feeling much better."

Five short teleports took them to the shelter of a narrow crack in a rock face. Beyond its thin entry way it opened into sizeable cavern. When he had stopped trying to wretch his empty stomach from the teleporting, Kuai glanced around.

"How do you know about these places?"

"Every Netherrealm creature knows how to hide."

Kuai looked at him, but the wraith did not notice. It was the closest Kuai had ever heard his brother come to acknowledging his own vulnerability. Kuai sunk against the wall. He pulled off all the immediately accessible strips of armour he could and summoned ice to drink.

"We cannot stay too long. I do not know when, but Quan Chi will soon work out that I have fled the fortress."

A twinge of guilt stirred in Kuai's chest. He realised he was thinking of the very much alive Sareena and her mixed loyalties.

"Where did you go back there? You were right across from me then you vanished!"

The wraith gave him a slow, unimpressed stare,

"I can't always come and save you, _little brother._ " He said coldly.

Kuai flared up,

"We were operating perfectly smoothly until you just up and left! I thought we were working together, that's what you meant by the whistle commands, was it not?"

Noob Saibot looked faintly uncomfortable,

"The parallel passage to yours was not as I recalled it. It had fallen away in part. I meant to backtrack but was dragged into the chasm before me."

Kuai's eyes widened,

"Dragged in...?"

"By an oni." The wraith admitted. "It took some shaking to get rid of, but... only one of us is going to spend time trying to relocate their head."

"Right..."

"What about you, I trust you were able to deal with whatever waylaid you?"

It was partly the phrasing and partly that latent guilt. He suddenly wished he hadn't been in such a hurry to take the hot layers off. He wanted the anonymity of the mask lying beside him and the hood he had thrown back. He tried to sound casual, looking off into the corner of the cave as he spoke.

"Yes, it was no problem. I took care of it, I was just surprised when you didn't show."

"Liar."

The wraith's dead eyes burned as white flames under the deep cowl of his hood. Though Noob was slumped against the far wall, his shadow stood tall, unharmed and proud, looking down on Kuai. Kuai tried not to let the accusation penetrate his calm.

"It's true, I-"

He saw the blur of the shadow move and raised his fists as iced barriers before his face. It threw its weight against him, seizing his wrists. Kuai wrestled against it pulling this way and that. It jerked back and slammed his head back against the wall. He blinked and in a moment had been flipped onto his back and pinned. Black dots swam before his eyes and again he felt the pull of unnatural fatigue, heat and exhaustion well up strong in him. He ground his teeth into determination and forced ice through his wrists so that they began to fractal and freeze the shadow's grip. He abruptly stopped when he saw the wraith's hungry white eyes leer down at him. Noob had crawled over to his shadow.

"What happened. What have you done." Neither of those sounded like questions from their deadened intonation.

Kuai felt old childhood insecurities rearing beneath his pinned ribcage. He saw the wraith pull back a hand and automatically flinched. The back fist never came however, he saw it ready and primed. All the strength of a calm, certain, steady and still man, who knew peace, patience, and perseverance in the face of all manner of horrors, fled before that old vision.

"I didn't mean to let her go." He blurted. That stare chilled him all the way to his bones, "It just made sense at the time – I – I think she wants to help you."

"Sareena?!" Noob hissed in disgust.

"She... she knew I wasn't you, she-"

"How."

"She knew your style of fighting, she-"

"Did you use ice?"

Kuai couldn't breathe for the hand the shadow pressed down into his throat. Shame and guilt of failure swarmed to the surface.

"I'm... I'm sorry," he choked.

The wraith roared in frustration as his shadow continued constricting Kuai's windpipe.

"The _one_ time I _ever_ need anything from you! I give you two orders. No ice. No talking. Did you _speak_ to her, Kuai Liang? No need to _lie,_ I know the depths of your incompetence only too well."

Kuai winced and gave the most fractional nod. He received that waiting back fist to the face.

"How could I even _think_ of doing this? How could I ever be so foolish as to trust in you to complete even the smallest and most basic..." As he trailed off he summoned his shadow back to him and it vanished into his body, leaving Kuai Liang coughing and rolling over and away. "This is my fault. I overstretched myself. I have played my hand too soon. I put too much reliance in the wrong places. I was foolish to trust in anything but myself.

"N-no." Kuai massaged his throat with one hand and with the other reached out in placation, "Please, it's not like that. I-I read the situation, speaking with her was the best way to resolve the situation. She already knew I wasn't you."

The wraith ignored him,

"My plan cannot work now. I must return as quickly as I can to the fortress and pray my absence has not already been noticed."

"Sareena will help us!" Kuai pleaded, "She won't tell Quan Chi! Please, Bi-Han, I didn't mean for this to happen, but there was nothing else I could do! We have to trust her and keep going."

"You know _nothing_ about her!" The wraith was lit with a fury that was not just directed against him, Kuai realised, "She is a trickster by nature! She cannot help but betray those around her! She is fickle and does as she pleases!"

"Then she may turn against Quan Chi?" Kuai said hopefully.

"I will not risk an eternity of pain on the whims of a trickster and your incompetence!"

"She cares for you!"

He regretted that outburst. He saw his brother turn it over, lather it in sarcasm and bowl it straight back to him.

"Again your judgement is warped by clinging emotions, foolish wishing and pathetic dreams. You never learn, Kuai Liang. Your misplaced trust in others and your constant need to see more in those around makes you weak. You always were the weakest of all the Lin Kuei."

"And yet I am the only one still alive." Kuai Liang's eyes were cold though his insides wrenched to hear his brother say those words.

"A coward's luck."

"Call it what you will, but it saved me from the Lin Kuei. Unlike you, I put my loyalty with those I believed to be right. I defied the Grandmaster and stood with Lord Raiden and Earthrealm. I have walked out of your world of strict rules and personal power play. My allegiance is to the things I choose to care for – not out of fear, not out of a struggle for personal gain, but by choice."

"Noble sentiments. Completely irrelevant, noble sentiments. You can call your illusion of choice what you will, Kuai Liang. All I care for is that you have ruined my already slim chances at pulling this off, and its not worth the consequences for me to try now."

"The odds were never good, but we can still-"

"You have _no idea_ what he can do!"

The cave echoed with those words. Kuai Liang had never heard such raw fear in his brother's voice before. The wraith turned away,

"If... he finds out..."

For the first time, Kuai saw another dimension of change that being a spectre had brought upon his brother. As Sub-Zero, his brother had never feared authority. Even in his days as the most upstanding, cherished member of the Lin Kuei, he had been immaculate in his etiquette, but coolly indifferent to any attempts at intimidation. The spectre before Kuai seemed agitated, strained and shaken even, as if he was somehow invisibly tethered to this tormentor he meant to put down.

"We can do this." Kuai Liang said firmly.

"I do not want your _optimism_." Noob Saibot spat, "I want reasonable chances of success before I commit to doing something unforgivable!"

"Contrary to your beliefs, I do not run on _optimism,_ Bi-Han. I get results through determination and hard work. Stop thinking in terms of absolutes and failure for once in your life and think your way forward. We're doing this and we're not going back." He straightened and set his expression hard. His tone fell easily into that of a Grandmaster accustomed to shouldering responsibility. "Assume the worst possible scenario and come up with a counter plan. Let us say that Sareena has already told Quan Chi of my presence here: my identity may be revealed but our chances are not void. Weigh up the options and formulate the details necessary for the mission to succeed. If you would also be so kind as to try and find me something to eat, I'm going to sleep. When I wake up I expect you to be back to your usual, insufferably imperious self, giving me orders and not whining about the odds of success. Also can you please stop hitting me and sitting on me. I'm not a child any more; I can take your criticism to heart without the weight of your punches behind it."

Kuai promptly lay down and closed his eyes. For the first few minutes he could do little but rein in the involuntary twitches that kept threatening to jump through his body as he readied himself at any moment to be sorely pummelled for his outburst. The punishment never came however and his brother was silent. Eventually Kuai relaxed enough for all discomfort to be eaten by that otherworldly fatigue that was becoming so familiar to him in his short time in the Netherrealm.

* * *

Kuai could see the glint in his eye. There was a playful spark that hinted that he was not yet done. His friend's posture was lazy, calm and relaxed, as if testing the air for its currents and secrets. Smoke excelled at moving from soft almost static poises into punches that landed so hard and fast they were almost invisible. Today they'd been fairly evenly matched, but in the last few minutes the sun had come out and bathed the courtyard of the Lin Kuei Temple in light. This caught and shimmered in the wreathes of smoke sifting around his opponent, making it just that bit harder to keep a track of his movements. Kuai pulled his fists into a tighter guard and breathed out a long breath that cooled the air.

"Careful, Tomas. I have a feeling that you're about to do something stupid because you're loosing."

"This is not what loosing looks like, Kuai. You will know what loosing looks like very shortly when you look up at me from the floor!"

Kuai kept from rolling his eyes. Smoke had once used baiting him with bad one-liners as an offensive tactic to distract him. He only ever needed that one edge over him to seize the veils of cloud about him and vanish into the air. He watched his friend carefully, his eyes lingered in different places, calculating something. _He means to teleport_ , Kuai surmised. He would not jump behind him, that would put the sun in his eyes. To either side then, or above. Kuai let the distance between them widen. Smoke almost subconsciously narrowed the gap back to its previous size. Kuai moved a few paces more, each time pausing to keep his sparring partner from noticing that he was being led. He saw Smoke's teeth grate together as he realised. It was too late by now though, Kuai had positioned them both beneath the yawning branches of an old cedar that leaned out over the courtyard. Smoke would not risk teleporting above with the obstruction.

Kuai was aware of footsteps sounding in the courtyard that stopped nearby. He caught Smoke's eye and they held a fractional truce as they both turned to glance at the intrusion. Some way off, but with attention definitely directed their way, was the Grandmaster himself, flanked on either side by Sub-Zero and Sektor. Kuai's heart sank, he saw Smoke stiffen as well. Some of the ease went out of his friend's movement. His muscles were more clenched, his face more determined, his thoughts more predictable. In that moment Kuai knew exactly what Smoke would do. He knew it so well, that he faked a second of distraction to bait the move.

Smoke vanished into the air. A shimmer of smoke winked in his wake. With the full force of his turning torso Kuai swung his guard, clearing the space between and sending his fist a full quarter turn to his right. He caught Smoke just as he reappeared and clocked him straight in the temple. Smoke reeled and stumbled back. Kuai was in his prime here – the close combat favoured him and he had Smoke on the back foot, still disorientated. He drove his second punch up into Smoke's chin, jolting his head back and disrupting his attempt to cling for balance. As he pulled his fist back to guard he lashed out with his other in a solid back fist that turned Tomas a full circle. One more punch was all that was needed to topple him. Kuai instead pulled his fist back and charged it with ice. No one wanted to look bad in front of the Grandmaster. What Kuai was doing was extremely risky. If it was discovered he helped his opponent in a fight the punishment would be severe to say the least. _Something impressive will distract the Grandmaster_. The Grandmaster had taken especial delight in the recent successes of Kuai's brother, Sub-Zero. Everyone in the Temple had heard tales of the assassin's extraordinary versatility and brutal efficiency. The innovative way in which he married his martial prowess and ability to wield ice had seen him rise to become the Grandmaster's favourite. It was expected that Kuai would follow these high standards, learning his brother's techniques and stepping up to become another great assassin in the Grandmaster's collection.

Kuai froze Smoke's feet to the ground just as the grey clad assassin regained his balance. Smoke swore as he saw Kuai come hurtling for him. Smoke put his palms together and focussed all his energy down into them. His hands began to vibrate and heat the air. The hot air melted enough of the ice to free him, but he was still not ready for the bulk of Kuai's weight that came through him. He took a shoulder straight to the stomach but managed to parry the fist as it pivoted at the elbow and came up to his face. Smoke took the fist, stepped back and redirected it, turning Kuai's body so that his back was to him. Kuai completed a full circle and connected his opposite elbow to Smoke's skull. Smoke staggered back. Just before Kuai came in for another onslaught. Smoke tightened his fists against his chest and sent energy vibrating so fast through his body that Kuai's punch deflected back and he had to step away to keep upright. In the corner of his eye, Kuai saw Smoke leapt at the opportunity. Kuai darted back freezing a layer over his body that remained behind as he leapt out the way. Smoke hit the clone of ice in Kuai's place and immediately the ice fractals splintered up his knuckles, over his arm and encased his body. Kuai drop kicked him and pinned him as the ice shattered.

"Cede." He commanded.

Smoke nodded.

Kuai stepped back, sighed, and offered a hand to his friend to get up. Smoke indicated to their observers with his eyes and Kuai hastily withdrew his hand. Smoke stood slowly. The two of them stood side by side and turned to face the Grandmaster. They brought their fists to their open palms and bowed low to him. When they unfolded, the Grandmaster had moved on.

Smoke exhaled a loud sigh.

"I hate it when they do that."

"Hush." Kuai said softly, "Someone might hear."

"Why'd they have to sneak up on a guy like that? Can't anyone get a peaceful moment of fighting in these days?"

Kuai rolled his eyes.

"Also, I can't believe you froze me solid. Unbelievably unfair."

"It's not unfair to use use the tools I have, Tomas."

"But I have an excellent mind and intellect that I deliberately don't use against you just so that you can stand a chance against me."

"You're very predictable when you're nervous, by the way. You should work on that. Saw your teleport coming a mile off."

"Says the guy who defaults to flashy ice moves whenever Bi-Han's watching."

"What!? I do not! That was – I did that to-" He threw up his arms in exasperation, "You are so _infuriating,_ Tomas! That is not what-"

"You are definitely the easiest person to wind up."

"Shut up, get out of here."

"Want to head up to the kitchen and see if there's any leftover food?"

"Do you _only_ think of food?"

"Food, bed, and irritating Tundra." Smoke dodged a punch that Kuai threw at him.

"Kuai Liang."

They both stopped still at that and looked at one another. Smoke put a hand on Kuai's shoulder,

"I'll maybe catch you later." Smoke walked on alone. Kuai did not turn round. He waited until his brother was standing next to him before looking up at him.

"What do you want?"

His brother wore his full blue uniform and his mask kept almost all his expressions under tight guard. Kuai received a single head jerk in response. He reluctantly followed behind as Sub-Zero led the way to their quarters. He banged the door open with a hand and stood by, waiting for Kuai Liang to enter first. A cold chill went down Kuai's spine that had very little to do with their joint cryomancer heritage. As soon as he had entered Kuai whirled round, backed away and put his guard up. He had seen enough of Bi-Han's bad moods to know that this conversation might well start and end in violence.

Sub-Zero slammed the door shut behind him. The room shot into darker shadows. The dying light of the sun came in half-hearted orange through a small window. Kuai instinctively hardened his guard by freezing layers of ice over his fists and forearms.

"Allow me to help you." There was nothing pleasant in his brother's voice.

Sub-Zero reached out and Kuai started in horror as the ice on his fists and forearms collected faster and outside his control. A thin sheet spread between his raised arms and up past both elbows. This thickened until his arms were frozen hard together. He could feel the rapid speed of his heartbeat in his mouth as his eyes widened and he looked up. He clamped his teeth together, refusing to give his brother the satisfaction of hearing his dismay. Sub-Zero came up close beside him. Kuai kept his breathing even and his eyes forward, arms hopelessly frozen stiff. He felt a hand slowly sit on the back of his neck. He closed his eyes just in time as his head was wrenched forward, shattering the ice, than force back so that it cracked against the wall. Kuai blinked white spots from his eyes and staggered away, lifting his guard to defend himself again. There was no follow up attack. Instead Sub-Zero stood, staring daggers into him,

"What were you _thinking?!"_

Kuai knew exactly what his brother was referring to, but feigned ignorance.

"What more do you want from me!? I defeated Smoke, and I did so with the clone you taught me – I executed it perfectly, it-"

"- Should not have even _come_ to that!" Bi-Han's eyes were steel. "You held back. Even with the Grandmaster _watching_!"

" _Because_ the Grandmaster was watching." Kuai gave up the game and watched warily as fury ignited in his brother. "He judges his assassins based on chance matches he happens to see as he walks through a courtyard once every six months!" Bi-Han looked angry to burst. As Kuai continued he tried to get the door angled behind him. "If I'd ended the match with Smoke at the first chance, Smoke would have had a hard time of it for months. I just prolonged my win for the best of both of us."

Sub-Zero was advancing on him,

"Stop!" Kuai said despite himself, "I know it was risky – but it was my risk to take – you don't have to look out for me all the time any more, I'm a grown man-"

"A grown _idiot_."

"It was just a one off, I spar with Tomas all the time! I know his moves like the back of my hand. He's my fellow Lin Kuei. We're on the same side – a-and sometimes that means looking out for each other despite the rules!" To Kuai's surprise, Sub-Zero stopped his advance. Kuai searched in his eyes, looking for some kind of acknowledgement that might indicate the anger was dispelling. He instead found something colder.

"And what if you and Tomas are no longer on the same side. What if one day he turns on you, and you aren't ready, because you put your trust in _others_ and never where it should be." He stepped forward poked Kuai hard in the chest, "In _yourself_. That is _all_ you can ever trust."

Kuai shook his head slowly,

"I... I know what you're trying to protect me from, Bi-Han. We... some of the other high ranks and I – we've heard about the initiative." Sub-Zero's eyes narrowed. Kuai continued, "We're... we're not going to let it happen. We're going to stand against it. _I know you're against it too!_ " The last sentence was said to stall another fit of rage that looked like it was about to explode his way. "I know you are, Bi-Han. You've spent too long perfecting all you do not to oppose being mechanised. You've always followed the rules – but on your own terms. I don't believe you'll let them turn you into an unthinking machine."

Sub-Zero closed the space between them and brought his mask close to his brother's so that ice blue eyes met one another and cold breath streamed from both sets of vents.

"The Grandmaster wants unthinking machines. I mean to show him he has one before he puts a single wire near me. It's people like _you_ acting in such insubordinate ways as _this_ , that cause ideas like _cyberisation_ to ever be floated."

Kuai's eyes flooded with relief,

"I knew you were against it! No one else would believe me, but I knew you'd never let them-"

"Kuai Liang!" Kuai fell silent. Sub-Zero withdrew and pulled himself up, folding his arms, "Follow my lead. Forget about your seditious _friends_ and become as ice to all and everything. I cannot help you if you will not help yourself. Steel yourself to all emotion and weakness and I will urge the Grandmaster to see that there are no improvements to be made to us."

"But, Bi-Han, what about Smoke?! And Cyrax-"

Sub-Zero let out strangled sound of exasperated fury. Kuai fell quiet in his corner.

"What... what is _wrong_ with you, Kuai Liang!? How do you lack what ever animal alive is born with!? A basic level of self-preservation!"

Kuai let the storm rage its worst for a while before daring a response.

"I just want to make sure the others are alright too... is that so bad? You would do the same for me."

"Not at the cost of my own life!"

Kuai watched him with uncertain eyes.

"Enough of this. I don't want to here a single word more of it. I already risk everything not reporting you and your cabal to the Grandmaster. If you have an ounce of sense in your head you'll turn them over yourself and step up the first rungs of the ladder. I'm about to embark on an extremely important mission, and more still after. I do not have time to constantly tell you to keep your head down, obey the Grandmaster and keep the rules of the Lin Kuei! Your attitude changes here and now or I am done with you, do you understand?"

"Done with...? You mean you'd tell the Grandmaster-?"

"I said, do you understand!?"

"Yes, Bi-Han."

* * *

He awoke to a livid hot burning sensation in the soles of his feet. He reached to them and felt the tender skin warm beneath his touch. He cooled the burned skin with a brush of frost and leaned back. He glanced warily over to the entrance and saw the wraith and his shadow sitting morosely, looking out the thin slit of the cave to the torturous world beyond. Kuai was tossed a nondescript chunk of charred meat by the spectre. He took it without complaint and focussed on his dream to keep from thinking about what he was consuming.

"As I recall you were good at tactical planning and using the environment against your opponents."

Kuai almost choked. He looked up in disbelief to see if this was some kind of joke at his expense. Acknowledging Kuai's fortes had never featured in Bi-Han's preferred method of communication.

"There is an old scar in the fabric of Netherrealm that I've been told is the easiest place to rip a portal through to the Chaos Realm. There was a portal there long ago, and reality is still frayed over that spot. Portals this big are usually beyond my power, but I have a ritual that will enhance my abilities and help me to tear through."

Kuai resumed eating and watched his brother with careful, suspicious eyes.

"The place is on high ground, but littered with old boulders, fallen pillars and stonework. In ages past it was a temple to something. One side is sloped with a staircase cut into the side as a switch-back path. On all other sides there are steep drops into a narrow river of lava. The cliffs are small though, and not unscalable to a dedicated foe. And neither does lava prove much of an obstacle to many of the residents of Netherrealm."

"What of the terrain? Is it hard and compact or loose and dusty?"

"It's hard, but only on the immediate baked surface. It could be broken up and made unstable."

"How dry and hot is the area – will my ice abilities be restricted? How long will is take for any ice to melt."

"I'm not sure," The wraith admitted, "I cannot feel hot and cold in the same way I used to. It won't be anything like the temperature at the bottom of that volcanic crater, but I imagine any ice you summon won't last long."

"Anything else at all in the area that can be moved and used? You said stonework – anything half standing and unstable? Any old steel? Bones?"

"I do not recall. We must get to the place and see. Relics from older wars and long dead pasts are not an uncommon sight in Netherrealm. I will need you to get on this as soon as we arrive. I must begin the ritual immediately. I am not sure how long it will take – I have a tight schedule to keep with Havik and the longer we take the more likely it is we'll have a big fight on our hands before the portal is even open."

"Understood. I am ready to depart when you wish."

Kuai tossed the bone he had stripped the meat from and fixed the heavy black mask over his face, pulling the cowl up over the top.

"Remember you also have the advantage of surprise. The confusion of your identity should work in your favour. You will also have Saibot working with you, though I will need him at points in the ritual."

Kuai looked at the shadow. He was always disturbed by the way the wraith spoke as if it were an entity of its own. He nodded though.

"Good. I am counting on you, Kuai Liang. Do not disappoint me again."

Noob Saibot got up and moved sideways through the narrow cave entrance. Kuai thought on those words as he followed him. They were very far removed from Bi-Han's fury last night, or in the memory recalled in his dream. He wondered what thoughts had been passing through his brother's head as Kuai slept.

* * *

 **Author Note:** Thanks for the reviews, faves and follows! Glad you're enjoying the story- I love hearing your comments so please keep writing them!


	5. Machine of War

Purple shadows hung under red rocks. The mulling sulphurous sky glared with its constant low light. Hot air rose shimmering from cracks in flat black earth. A skyline littered with fallen monoliths of long forgotten factions mutated with distance so that stone looked like skulls and dull winds whistled with long moans through their mouths. Dark places at the edge of the eye were populated with skulking, bent over denizens, who fled before the wraith as he walked, but lingered long with jealous eyes after he passed.

Kuai Liang kept close to Noob Saibot. He had finally worked out an equilibrium that kept up his strength. Despite it eating into their precious time, his brother did not question him when he required that they stop for a few minutes after each hour of walking. Kuai Liang had no intention of being down on his game when they arrived at their destination. He wanted to be as strong as a mortal could be in the realm of the dead when they took their stand. For once, it seemed that the spectre saw the wisdom in this, and did not mock him for his choice.

His brother paused in his pace and pointed. Kuai stopped beside him.

"You see it?"

A flat topped hill crowned with part-crumbled standing stones broke the stiff flat horizon. A longer slope crawled up to the knoll and stopped squat and sheer on all other sides.

"Does Quan Chi know of it?"

"Probably, but most likely its an insignificant detail he won't think to recall." The wraith surveyed the hope this lit in Kuai's eyes. "But he'll know we're aiming for it. Everything that fears Quan Chi serves him in this realm. It only takes one ambitious slug from the dregs of the hierarchy for Quan Chi to know our every step. I have seen many already race to gain favour with him."

"What, since we've been walking?" Kuai glanced around.

"Indeed. Enough talking now. Do you need to rest?"

Kuai shook his head and they pushed on.

Strange clouds turned spirals above them and tilted the air into shades of darkness. As they climbed the shallow steps up to the hilltop, dust kicked up and skittered over the old worn stone. Kuai narrowed his eyes as a sickly warm wind cracked over the dead dry slope revealing half buried skeletons still decked in their proud finery. Sunken obelisks crowded on the peak and stood black against the burning skyline. The steps they ascended stopped as the hill flattened. An old low wall ran about the top and above this the hill curved up a little more until its true peak was revealed. A circle of stones, some twice the height of a grown man, stood in waiting silence.

Kuai stopped walking. His business was going to be defending all this position. He watched his brother ascend the last knoll like some phantom king come to regain an ancient kingdom. The shadows of the still stones stretched to him and bonded with him. He walked to their centre. The clouds above ran black and turned in slow circles. Kuai struggled to identify that strange spectral being with brother that had been with him every step of his childhood. The Bi-Han who had sneaked him out the temple, just so that he could see its buttresses against a white winter sky. The one who had covered up all his mistakes, kept him from the worst punishments the temple dealt, always stepped into any friction for him and taken the brunt of the blows whether it be from fellow students or the temple masters. He started on realising this. For the last three days, if one could call them that in the constant Netherrealm dull light, Kuai had woken up bitter and angry. Memories of his brother's disappointment in him and harsh reprimands had littered his dreams. He wondered if perhaps this cursed realm was playing with him, churning up frustrations from his past, as if stirring his enmity might give this place power over him. _It was not always like that_ , he recalled. _He always talked of being emotionless, of obeying, of trusting only in oneself, of no right and wrong but strength, but in everything he did, he shielded me – almost always at his own expense. He fought to the top of the Grandmaster's favour while all the while hiding the unorthodox inclinations of his brother. Only this morning I dreamed of when he said he would never go so far as to risk his life for me... but... all the evidence of everything he's done... points otherwise. His words always hurt and kept me from seeing that... But even until the very hour of his death, all his ambition was tapered and constructed to keep us both out of harm. Since I arrived in the Netherrealm he has threatened me in almost every way possible, insulted me, mocked me, and unfairly scolded me. But he has saved my life at least three times, carried me twice when I was unconscious, fed me, given me water... He thinks me naïve and foolish for believing that he can be saved. But my conviction is neither foolish or naïve. And it is him that has taught me that._ Kuai watched his bother as he raised his arms to the dark sky above and began to chant in an ancient tongue. _His mannerisms, his paucity of encouragement, his sarcastic insults..._ Kuai realised these were all things his own apprentice, Frost, complained of in him. _We differ by fractions. He does not deserve this. He does not deserve to be caged in world where his survival depends on pleasing a megalomaniac necromancer._

Kuai walked the circumference of the hilltop. The topography was as his brother had described. A river of magma looped about the foot of the hill on three steep sides. The only open ascent was up the winding stone steps on the tail they had ascended. He froze one of the stone steps with layers of ice varying in thickness. These would melt while he worked and give him some indication of how effective his powers would be here. He summoned a kori sword of ice and stabbed it down into the hard earth. He levered the ground up and watched as it crumbled to dust. He could use this against his foe, but it would be very labour and time intensive to do something effective with it on a slope this big. He thought again. He looked back up the slope. It would be worth it if he got more out of the effort.

He set off immediately collecting up the shards and remains of weapons. The whole place was littered like a tomb with the remnants of the dead, all of whom seemed to have been very keen to keep weapons with them as they perished. He broke open the ground with spears of ice and stabbed the old blades he collected hilt first into the earth beneath the small ring wall crowning the hill. When he had created a perimeter of pointed spikes, he went back to the slope and began cracking up the baked earth, taking care to leaver it up in large compact squares. He laid this carefully over his blades to make a hidden spike trap, sealing the gaps with moisture melted from ice. When he was done, the small wall had vanished, leaving what looked like a smooth unbroken gradient in the hillside that ran straight up to the standing stones. A wide line of loose dust and earth had also been cut into the lower slope that might hinder swift advancement up that side.

He began gathering up the most intact skeletons he could find, and piling their remains up near the hill top. As he worked he caught sight of red dust rising on the horizon. The hill offered him a wide view in all directions. The dust rose before the black forked smudge that marked Quan Chi's fortress in the distance. Kuai glanced up to the stone circle. Noob Saibot was marking patterns in the dry earth and squeezing black droplets of his own blood into the channels he made. He kept up a low chanting all the while. His shadow stood to one side and noticed Kuai watching. It vanished into the ground and arose liquidly beside him. Kuai took a step back, before realising it was not here to reprimand but to aid him.

"Impale these skeletons on pikes and set them up around the hill top. Drape them in any scraps of material you find."

The shadow moved to complete the task. Kuai returned to his test patches of ice. All but the thickest layer remained, and even that was thawing fast. He looked at the steps then the rest dust cloud moving ever closer. It would be cutting it fine, but he was sure he could ice the lot in the narrowest margin of time possible. _If only there was more snow, more water – anything._ He looked up at the whirling clouds above and narrowed his eyes.

Kuai looked back up to the hilltop. His brother was another black silhouette standing with the old stones. A purple glow was emitting from his hands and he drew it in concentric circles across the earth. Kuai surveyed his preparations one last time. It was a long way off odds he felt were in his favour, but he had a few tricks of his own he meant to add to the carnage. He judged the distance between the hilltop and the dust cloud moving over the land toward them.

"About ten minutes." He said to the shadow. It's face remained impassive. "If... if I tell you, does Bi-Han know?"

It narrowed its eyes at him, then nodded.

"Are you the same as him?"

The shade remained silent.

"He talks about you as though you are other than him."

Nothing.

"I find it hard to speak to him because I have always been afraid of disappointing him." That came out somewhat unexpectedly. Kuai blinked at his own blasé confession. The shade stared at him. It was out now so he might as well follow it up. "I wouldn't want to die without him knowing that I truly am thankful for all he has done for me. It can't have been easy, doing what he did. But I am grateful. I'm not here because I think I'm better than him. I'm not even here to try and save him. I'm here because I can never repay all that he's given to me." Kuai heard a pause in the low monotone chant above them. He glanced up and saw the wraith looking down at him. The distance was too great for Kuai to make anything of that look.

"Take them down into the flames when they come." Kuai's reminiscing tone was gone. He pointed to the river of lava. The shade nodded, something eager entered its otherwise empty face. It vanished into the ground. Kuai ice slid down to the bottom of the hill. The dust obscured the near slope and he could make out the unearthly howl of undead creatures as they pounded up the earth. He bent to freezing the lowest step, then held his hands steady, taking in more with the ice he blasted from his palms.

When he had finished and climbed back up to the top, each stone step was coated with a thick layer of ice. He felt a strength and confidence that had been missing for the entire duration he had been in this realm. He realised it was something to do with that confession. Letting that go, and knowing it had been heard... it was as though something crushed and anxious within him had been set free. He breathed easily. He felt himself again. He did not need to be wearing blue, or to be called by a codename to know who he was. He did not need to measure himself up to his brother's abilities, or worry about fitting into the strict confines of Lin Kuei expectations. He was something apart from all that – something independent that knew exactly where it wished to be and why. _I think I have always known,_ a small voice in him confirmed. _I've always known that the things that mattered... weren't the things they told me mattered. And that the standards they wanted me to live by... conflicted with something deep inside. Something that was precious to me. Something I was taught to be ashamed of. But... of the two of us... I am the one confident enough to be concerned. They told me it was weak to care. Weak to trust. Weak to ask if there was a difference between what we can do and what we should do. It's not weak. It's hard. It would have been so much easier not to fight them, not to fight you. In a kind of irony... you were the role-model that taught me to live for those I cared for even at great personal cost. That's not weakness. That's the strength in you I've always admired, even if you somehow never noticed you possessed it._

A swarming mass of hellion beasts beat across the crack backed earth. Leather winged, twisted horned, flat snouted, cloven hoofed hybrid denizens mingled with things darker still that wrapped themselves in thin veils of beauty. The air vibrated with the chorus of their clamour.

Sub-Zero stood alone at the top of hill looking down on the hoards of the Netherrealm. He picked up a javelin from the haphazard stash lined up in the ground before him. He pointed an arm to mark the trajectory, then ran his hand down its length summoning ice all along its body. He hurled it. It sailed like a single arrow signalling the beckon to war. The high curvature of its arc took it straight down in front of the advancing horde. It hit the ground with an almighty crack and ice splintered from it, rapidly spreading as a wide sheet over the ground. The creatures on the front row screeched and backed away from the unnatural sight. Their unforgiving affiliates behind did not stop however. The air erupted into squawks and screams as the lesser creatures were churned into the grinder of the wave behind. Their bodies went down in a blur of dust. The splutter of their cries was subdued into the crack of bones and meat breaking under feet. Sub-Zero's face set hard as he watched. The next wave stumbled as they slid on the ice. A number of their ranks rose into the air, beating bat-like wings to rise above the fray. Some of the winged creatures were skull faced with cavernous eyes and long clawed fingers. Others were startlingly beautiful women, hair loose and flowing, complexion unmarred even amidst all the savagery about them.

Kuai frowned. Anything flying was going to avoid almost every trap he had set. A large number of the second wave were going the same way as the first as they slipped and slid on the ice into the claws and remorseless feet of their compatriots. Something fire breathing had pushed to the font and was making quick work of the ice. Kuai raised a hand to shield his eyes against the bright of the flaring orange sky. He picked up another javelin and hurled it toward a flying beast. The target cartwheeled out of the way, though the effort threw it off balance. Kuai hurled another and this once tore a whole through a wing, but did little to slow the advance. All of a sudden a dark purple vortex appeared swirling above one of the bat-winged women, the shadow, Saibot, dropped out of the portal and plummeted to the earth with the flapping harpy pinned in it's grasp. They hit the ground as one, and Kuai heard her neck and spine crunch with the force of the fall and the shadow on her back. Saibot vanished as soon as it was done. It dropped out of another portal, seized a creature and disappeared with it into a second portal. Kuai heard a scream come from the direction of the river of magma. He felt a grim glow of satisfaction. A hellion faced beast beat its wings fast and reared up before him. Kuai forced his palms together and shot it with a blast of ice. It froze above the ground and dropped as soon as its wings stopped beating, shattering into red shards of frozen blood when it hit the floor.

The main body of the hoard had progressed to the base of the hill. Those that had attempted to use the steps cut into the slope were slipping uncontrollably back into their comrades. Kuai curled his wrist in an arc, summoning a great ball of ice. He wrapped it with his second hand strengthening its weight and size then bowled it straight down the slope. He slid along and dealt another down the hill. Both balls rumbled as they spun, turning faster and faster before exploding into shards on reaching their target. He was rewarded with the cries and roars of demonic beasts rearing from the lethal shards. All these attacks were picking out single targets in amidst waves that just kept rolling however. Kuai could not even see an end to the ranks before him for the dust and mad fluttering and snarling colliding below.

Saibot had taken down many of the flying creatures, but a couple were straggling through to the top, and many more had appeared from the bulk of the horde below. Kuai waited until one was close enough and jumped, shooting forth a blast of tice that caught the beast full force and sent it shattering down to its death. As he did so however, another came up to his left and raked at him with knife claws and a curdling howl. The long nails scored through the black cloth of his garb. The harpy had made a mistake of its own. It had now closed the distance between them. Sub-Zero stretched out a hand and grabbed its throat. It screamed and lashed at his arm. His brother had fitted him with heavy though. Kuai slammed the beast down into the ground, its skull thudding hollowly against the earth. He summoned a dagger of ice and slit its throat quickly and silently. It gurgled once as it bled dry. The blood stained the already red soil and seeped into the open cracks in the hard surface.

The third wave of the army had broken forth and made significant progress up the hill. They were nearing the strip Kuai had ripped the shell of the earth from. Feet scrabbled at the dust as hellish beasts clawed their way upwards. He frowned as pointed pincers and curled claws stretched and tugged in firm for grip, easily moving over the obstacle he had hoped would buy him more time. He saw Saibot vanish into the ground. He looked behind him. The shadow reappeared next to the wraith and immediately raised its arms, no doubt required for whatever part of the ritual was occurring. Kuai grimaced. An advancing battalion of winged beasts were coming up fast and the wave on foot were moving much more swiftly than he had hoped. He was momentarily at a loss. All at once however, the combined weight of the beasts on foot shifted the dug away soil, dislodging the structure of the ground below. A shudder went through the earth and a line of dust plumed orange straight up into the air. The lower half of the hilltop collapsed and the screams and howls of creatures rolling back into the raised weapons of those behind clattered through the air. Kuai raised his eyebrows at the good fortune, but was quickly preoccupied by the winged denizens approaching.

He froze one and caught it by a leg before it fell, hurling it into another. He formed a long kori sword and took off the ankles of another. It screeched, showering him in the tattered remains of its limbs before dropping to the ground and clawing away from him. Sub-Zero stamped down on its spine then severed its neck. Its head rolled off down the hillside. He turned quickly, pulling his weight through the motion to sweep his sword through the air. His blade hacked part way through a leather winged creature, scarlet skinned and stunted horned. The steel got caught part way through its bone and he brought its body slamming down to earth. He planted a foot on its ribcage and wrenched his sword back. It took several tries before he tugged it out, the thing beneath him now screaming and writhing in agony. He punched straight up into its jaw and the impact snapped its skull back. It fell silent immediately, neck contorted at a strange angle. He brought his sword up quickly to fend off from the barrage of claws and nails that had got closer as he finished off his last victim. He booted another beast in the stomach and it skidded head over heels backward in a confused mesh of wing and limb. Sub-Zero hunted its retreating path and trapped the fingers on the tip of its leathery wing beneath his foot. The thing screeched beneath him, black, pupil-less eyes wide in terror as he bore down on it. He grasped the beast by one of its horns and pulled. He only stopped when he heard the sound of its spine shattering as it separated from its rib cage. He pulled the head clean off and bowled it into another demon bearing down on him. He cleared the rest of the space about him with spinning slash of his sword and focussed on taking off anything that dangled within reach. Soon the air was heavy with a fine mist of blood that rained fast and thick onto the earth.

He could not get clean kills and was only able to hack at anything that hung low enough in the air. Any creature that was maimed however, dropped lower still in altitude and lost something more vital to his ice blade. His face set grim and his eyes wild as a frenzy directed his arms and he set into combinations that tied his free hand to his weapon arm. He clasped one beast by the neck and ran it through the stomach with his blade. He flying punched another as it dropped lower holding the bloodied stump of a limb he had cut off moments earlier. He flipped his blade and held it reverse grip to stab behind him as a sly fiend crept up on him. As he cleared the area and steeped up the carnage about him, he was able to pause, steady his breathing and survey the scene.

The chaos on the slope below had forced a new group to try climbing the steps. Much of the ice had melted by now and this was proving a popular choice. Kuai bowled more balls of ice down at them, but many of the imps were sprightly and leapt over the ice. Those unlucky enough to be further down took punishment instead, but this did little to halt the advance of those in front. Kuai positioned himself at the top of the narrow staircase, kori blade in hand. The first creature hesitated when it saw him standing in full black and looking over the slitted steel confines of his mask. Kuai stuck it in the throat and it died before it could scream. The next one barked in alarm and jolted back. A wiry, half naked imp behind it batted it out the way and leapt forward. It sprung straight for Kuai's face. He swung the ice blade straight through it and it fell to the ground in two halves, insides spilling slick on the stone steps. While he was distracted however, two more had latched themselves to his legs. Kuai acknowledged the rocket his heartbeat had taken. If he went down, it would most likely be under the sheer mass of his enemy. He threw his sword into the head of the next creature and used his free hands to raise ice through his legs, stopping the sharp teeth that sought a way passed his greaves. The creatures shrieked and dropped like fat ticks from his limbs on feeling the ice that flowed through him. He channelled the ice up through his arms and pushed it forth, sending a catastrophic wave of freezing air straight down the steps. The front four creatures froze into one solid block that began to roll angularly back down the steps, bowling everything out the way.

Kuai had another fractional moment to catch his breath. He was hot, he realised. Very hot. His vision swam slightly even when he stood still. He pumped iced over his limbs, letting it lie as a thick layer over his torso as Bi-Han had suggested. He wiped sweat from his brow and narrowed his eyes to survey the picture before him. The crumpled bodies of winged beasts littered the hilltop and slope. The dust was finally settling after the landslide and those caught beneath it were beginning to recover and start back up the hillside. The hillside steps were still a jumble of flattened bodies and the giant iceberg of solid enemies had rolled to a stop at one of the corners, for the time being blocking the route. Just as he was settling his assessment, he heard renewed cries and commotion coming from below. He could see nothing amidst all the red dust and bodies. The crowds parted however and out of the sand kicked air came three women.

They walked proudly and easily, heels crunching the bodies of the fallen as they strode. One, Kuai was disappointed to see, was Sareena. She looked in her essence here – like she belonged with these two women, like she was born for this battlefield, like she lived and breathed the gore and grime of an army in confusion. She was clad in close-fitting tough red leather and was cutting the air with two kama that twisted with flicks of her wrists. To her left was a woman with tattoos that curled up her cheeks and long dark hair that splayed like spiders webs across her shoulders as she moved. She spun boomerangs between her fingers and walked with steady purpose in her stride. Her black garb on pale skin marked her out like a domino against the hazy battlefield. To Sareena's left was a woman with flyaway white hair that billowed like new steam as she walked. Dagger like markings set on her cheeks stood out cream on brown. She was willowy and lithe but defined lean muscles stood on her arms as she twirled a sword in her grip. The three moved forward with a smoothness that was unnatural, a beauty that was disturbing and an intent that was deadly.

Sub-Zero set his teeth together. Having faced Sareena alone, he did not like his chances of taking these three on together. He glanced around, looking for anything he might use to his advantage. His skeletal puppet army of bones on sticks rattled thinly in the low wind. He glanced up to the stone circle and saw Noob and Saibot raising their hands to one another, engulfed in purple energy. He looked back down. He did not even have the element of surprise since he had given himself away to Sareena. They would know not to expect Noob Saibot's skill set from him. Instead of rising in panic, he felt his world slow in gradual acceptance. _If it must end this way... there are worse ways to go,_ he thought. _At least I am back where I belong – between those I love and their death. I could not save Bi-Han. I could not save Smoke. I could not save Cyrax. They all fell. The weight of my failure... might at last be cleansed by this, my death as I finally pull through for someone._ It was easier to look down then. Easier to watch as the three demons stalked up the hillside towards him.

"Our master is displeased, Noob Saibot." Laughed one woman. As she turned her boomerangs in her hands, Kuai could see serrated blades inset in their edges. He paused at her words though, and hid is surprise deep in his cowl. His eyes flicked instantly to Sareena but her face revealed nothing to him.

"He told you – stay – in – the – fortress!" This was said by the third demon with an almost sing-song tone to it. The whole unnerving experience was heightened by Kuai's confusion as to why they seemed to still think he was his brother when Sareena knew him not to be. _Perhaps she cannot tell us apart and has not yet worked out which I am_. His eyes followed them warily as they begun to circle him like starving wolves.

"Such an ungrateful little spectre," The first purred, "Raised from the dead, given powers most of us would dearly rrrrrelish... but its still not enough."

"Did no one ever teach you to choose your moments wisely, spectre? If you make a jump for power, you better be verrrrry sure you can seize it."

"Have you heard of the ninth plane, spectre? It is a special place just for those like you; a place reserved for betrayal." Kuai thought he saw Sareena shudder as one of her fellows spoke these words. "Do you know what is done to traitors in the Netherrealm?"

"I don't think you will like it."

"Not one bit."

"Tell him what it's like, Sarrrreena."

Sareena smiled with difficulty. Her posture was languid and unreadable to Kuai.

"I can't quite recall..." Sareena laughed, but it sounded mournful and hollow, "I'm beginning to think I might need another visit." She suddenly swung her kama with lightening speed, slicing off the hand of her fellow demon. A boomerang dropped to the ground. The hand fell after it with a curious, sickening thud. The dark haired demon screamed in agony. The fingers of the fallen hand twitched and the bright white of the bone stained brilliant scarlet. A fraction of disbelieving confusion reigned, then erupted into violence. The one armed demon lashed out with her remaining boomerang, hacking forward at Sareena who had to step up and catch the blade with the curve of her kama.

Sub-Zero used the advantage to pause and focus his mind on the kata his brother had shown him before entering the Netherrealm. It had been intended to inform his movement rather than mimic a whole fighting style, but even a little of it now might give him an extra edge over his opponent. He pulled back first into a defensive stance to force himself to think in the new style. He took an open palm guard but kept his fingers tight together. He even allowed an ease in his posture that came when he thought of his brother's pride and condescension. The white haired demon sprung forth and thrust her sword straight toward him. He batted it aside with a tight block, using the tough gauntlets to protect him from its edge. The blade was short and twisted quickly back round with more flexibility of movement than Sub-Zero had anticipated. He leaned back in time to see a blur of a line as the tip passed just before his eyes. The disorientation left him open to the return swing. Acknowledging the lost high ground, he dropped suddenly into a low kick. He hit his mark and the woman hissed as her leg went out from under her. As she fell, Sub-Zero leant in and double punched her in the jaw and stomach. He did not wait after they connected, and let his body execute a full line of the kata his brother had showed him. Alone, the moves had appeared to be small ineffectual looking blocks, but with an opponent in close they became a fast succession of deadly strikes. His palms cut into his enemy, finding vital points at the end of his strikes. Each hit set reverberating flinches in his opponent that prevented her from recovering her balance. He finished the combination with a solid punch from his rear hand that sent the demon flying. She hit the dry, stained earth and skidded along it, dust cast out beneath her as she fell. He stood straight and stalked over to her, laughing softly. There was fear in the woman's eyes but it steeled to determination.

"You laugh, Noob Saibot, but I have suffered defeat at your hand before – does it look like it has hindered me much? You are a fool to defy Quan Chi. Learn to serve him, and all other power – even resurrection itself, will be granted to you."

"And what of freedom?" He growled, for a moment forgetting that it was not truly him that she spoke to.

"Overrated. You were a pawn in life – you do not have half as many commitments in death. Quan Chi is not an unreasonable master."

"Stop talking at him and kill him, Jataaka!" The one handed demon screamed across to them as she dodged sideways out of the path of Sareena's kama. Sub-Zero tilted his head and drew back his fists. He was surprised to see his opponent, Jataaka, raise a hand, as if to stay him,

"It is said you once showed mercy to Sareena and spared her life. Why did you not spare Kia and I? What was it she had that we did not?"

Sub-Zero paused in confusion. This was not something his brother had ever spoken of before. Sub-Zero did not even know until recently that a mission during his brother's lifetime had taken him to the Netherrealm, let alone the events that had taken place there.

"Did you ever think that, had you extended us the same courtesy, this picture, right now, might look different?" She gestured. Kuai looked at Sareena, kama whirling through the air, her fellow demon admirably holding ground with her bladed boomerang as the stump of her wrist bled profusely onto the ground. "Call this your own comeuppance then."

Sub-Zero whirled back round in time to see Jataaka tilt her sword toward him. A flash of light erupted from the weapon. The speed and his shock were so great that he instinctively jumped back, leaving an ice clone of himself behind. The laser bounced off the ice and reflected back to cleave a hole straight through the fallen Jataaka's neck. Her eyes opened in surprise and confusion. She looked at him stupidly as if trying to understand something, before her eyes rolled up into her head and she dropped back dead to the floor. A perfect cauterised circle sheered all the way through her throat to show the ground beneath. He surveyed her body emotionlessly for a moment. He turned abruptly, placed the heels of his palms together and froze the demon called Kia. Sareena opened her guard wide and double sliced with her kama, taking Kia's head clean off before booting her body so that it shattered into pieces.

"Revive from _that_!" She spat at her former colleague. She bent over to catch her breath and looked up at him, "You're his brother, aren't you." Sareena wiped sweat and blood from her face and studied him with stubborn eyes. "He was raging about you taking his name when he first returned with our mast- with Quan Chi after the Mortal Kombat tournament." He said nothing. She nodded briefly, "You remind me of him when he first came here."

Sub-Zero looked down the hill. The army had made good progress while he was distracted, every trap he had laid further down had been sprung and they now moved unhindered.

"If you mean to help us, get to the higher ground and-" He stopped her with a hand on her upper arm as she began to walk to the summit, "Watch that..." He pointed to the discolouration in the earth that marked the hidden spike trap. She blinked, then nodded. She leapt nimbly and landed on the high ground. Kuai watched his brother and his shadow pause to look to her. She stood still and they locked eyes. Kuai saw both of their shoulders relax. He wondered at that. He had a hard time imagining Bi-Han being compassionate even in life. No one took Lin Kuei missions more seriously than him. He found himself thinking back to what Jataaka had asked; about Sareena being spared while she and Kia had been ruthlessly dispatched. _Bi-Han, you seem to have a lot of complexity to you given your self-professed commitment to personal power at all costs._

He surveyed the circle of skeletal scarecrows surrounding the crown of the hill. He had vaguely thought that perhaps the appearance of large numbers might strike some fear into the oncoming army. He had not calculated on the limited intellectual capacity of some of his opponents, nor carrot and stick effect of offered power and eternal torment that Quan Chi held over these creatures. The hellion beasts clawing their way up to him did not even view him as an enemy, it seemed. They saw in him only an obstacle and a stepping stone. _Time for a new use for my long dead friends._ He let forth a wide jet of ice, using the skeletal figures like fence posts to support the ice he sprayed between them. A thin barrier of ice hung between the lolling bone scarecrows. _That'll freeze at least the first row._ He sped about the circumference of the hill top creating an thin ice barrier all around it.

By the time he finished, the first creatures had reached his barrier. The ice shattered when the first victims touched it and absorbed its power. He summoned a kori blade and stood in the breach, cleaving the victims into shards. Very quickly there was a flood and screech of beasts all about him. He threw his weight behind the weapon swinging it a full circle about him then round and down over his head. The burst of blood and crack of snapped bone followed in the wake of his blade and showered everything hot red. He swung again, alternating sword blows with blasts of ice. His eyes suddenly shot to pin pricks and the skin of his face stretched in a silent scream. A full hand of claws raked deep down his back through already open wounds. In his single-minded dedication to the fight, he had neglected to notice the beasts climbing up the cliffs around the hill top. Some had been frozen by his barrier, but others still had forced their way through the gaps. He was quickly becoming surrounded. He tried to make his retreat back up the hill, but had trouble covering behind him with the pressure of the demons and imps surrounding him.

"Hurry!" He heard a voice behind him. Sareena had jumped back down and was helping to cleave a path for him. Her kama cut through limbs like new grass, sweeping graceful arcs framed by the maimed screams of those who fell to her blades. Sub-Zero backed into the space she made. All about them new shouts of terror begun. Sub-Zero and Sareena leapt to safety above the spike trap as beasts all about them broke through the earth covered defences to be impaled on the blades of ancient warriors underneath. Sareena raised her eyebrows as the chorus was echoed behind and all around them. Bodies mangled quickly into stacks against the spikes as the rows behind pushed forward before the lines before could pull back from the threat. Sub-Zero's face was grim despite the success of the initiative. The corpses soon stacked so high that the steel defences simply disappeared beneath the mass of mangled flesh. New enemies begun to scale the piles.

"Is Noob going to do something impressive any time soon, or did you two just want an ostentatious grave in the Netherrealm?"

Sub-Zero had little time or patience for Sareena's sardonic remarks.

"We will know when he is done. Until then..." The situation was looking more dire by the second. He took a deep breath. Sareena winced, her mind flying no doubt to the unpleasant consequences of joining the brothers in defeat.

There was no time for talking after that, or thinking. They aimed for killing blows as the first creatures crawled over the wall of bodies. Sareena kept up a swift routine of decapitation whilst Sub-Zero froze the top layer, keeping the wall ever higher. Soon their enemy were coming from all sides however, and they had to pull back to keep Noob Saibot's ritual covered. Kuai glanced at him. He was oblivious to the carnage about him, all his power and thought focussed on his task. Sub-Zero set his jaw. He and Sareena took a side of the circle each.

Sub-Zero felt jaws clamp over his unprotected calves and hissed in pain. He stiffened his limbs in ice, forcing off the teeth on his legs, but also lowering his guard to do so. Several bodies hurled themselves at him and he went down under the squirm and slide of their writhing bodies. He roared as something latched onto his throat. Another clawed at his chest. Weight pounded down with repeated intensity as bodies buckling like flapping fish flew onto him. Everything became hot wriggling pressure. A smell like charred wood and rotting flesh cloyed his senses. Hot blood traced down his face and mixed with sweat and grime. The clash of teeth bounced over his face. His muscles in various places protested the crunch of nicked fangs and scrabbling claws. All other sounds deadened as the weight of bodies mounted. Everything became dark and the heat unbearable. The pressure on his chest pushed down hard and he heard a crack as the last of the ice over his torso cracked and splintered into pieces that would melt in seconds. Soon it was not the teeth that bothered him but the crush. He felt the air squeezed out of his lungs and forced burning through his aching throat. He found he could not expand his ribcage for the pressure on top of him. His eyes bulged. He could not even move his mouth for the foul body pressed hard against his face. He knew the heat, the dark, the pressure, and the sudden inevitability of death. _Was this what it was like as he burned you alive?_

He was faintly away of a high distant noise. At first he could make nothing of anything. His air starved mind could only make out light and sound. Both of these, however, increased. Soon he realised he could see the sky. _Like the smoke clouds of a city on fire. Always red. Like the guilt on our hands. The Lin Kuei. Bringers of death._ He found the weight on his chest lessened and was able to move off the crushed dead corpses smothering him. Everything that could move was fleeing back over the wall of corpses with a smattering of shrieks following them. He stared around in confusion. His first thought was that Bi-Han must have saved him, but he saw the wraith struggle to feet while his shadow cleared corpses from the earth where they stood. Immediately Noob Saibot bent to continuing his ritual. Sub-Zero glanced around for Sareena. He spotted a particularly large corpse pile and dug through it. As he tugged bodies off, he was rewarded by the gasping intake of breath.

"Get them off me!" She screeched, "Get them off!" Sub-Zero helped her out. She clasped her shoulders and kept rubbing, then touched her throat, then shuddered. Her kama were gone. "I thought that was the end – I thought that was it... You keep saving me, Sub-Zero!" Sub-Zero did not bother to correct her confusion. He had already returned to surveying the scene. His instinct was impressing a slow dread on him. "How did you do it? How did you fend them off?"

"I didn't," he said sourly.

He realised where the increasing dread was coming from. Now that he had regained control of his senses, he could feel the shudder of the earth beneath him. The entire hill quaked in rhythmic time like the skin of a giant war drum. He blinked as a swathe of dizziness slipped over him. He was bleeding from a number of places, including teeth pricks on his neck. He stemmed the flow by chilling the blood and thinly freezing the wounds, but could feel the grinding shudder of exhaustion trying to curl through his bones. He fought it down with iron will and a hard grimace.

The ground trembled and the wall of corpses around them shook like animated puppets at every beat. He glanced at Sareena, and saw her eyes fixed forward. She had the look of one who knows what is to come and yet prays for it not to be so. She turned and struck him straight in the face with an expression of imploring terror. In that moment, Kuai Liang understood why Bi-Han had spared her. There was something raw and honest in those eyes. Something in agony, something desperate, something stubborn, something terrified. Something that looked all too much like a mirror. She looked back to the barrier. Kuai Liang followed her gaze.

The piled corpses flew to one side as a giant club beat them out the way. The back swing cleared another stack into the air, bones crunching as rag-tag bodies went up like autumn leaves in the wind and crumpled back down hard in twisted, broken, unrecognisable shapes. The remainder of the barrier was bowled away by an enormous iron ball on a chain. The chain was snapped back by its owner, a great creature, blue skinned, thickly muscled, hunched over like a primate. It tilted a head and blinked with yellow glowing eyes. A third eye peered out from its horned forehead. The owner of the club stomped up beside it, a hideous monstrosity all devoid of skin and clad only in the raw tones of its fleshy muscles. It's face was obscured by the mockingly donned mask of an old samurai warrior. Between these immense oni was the true source of Sareena's fear. Quan Chi himself strode toward them.

* * *

 **Author Note:** Thanks once again for the reviews and comments you're writing, they continue you to be a great inspiration to me both on Fanfic and on Archive of Our Own! Only one chapter remains after this one, but I will be updating the Epilogue that follows it at the same time so as to round of the story nicely for followers.


	6. Brothers In Arms

Kuai Liang found himself paralysed under the scrutiny of two empty, hollow red eyes.

"I knew there was something off about you. I put the stink of life about you down to Noob Saibot's recent return from Earthrealm. But now here you are... bleeding red." The oni either side of Quan Chi shifted eagerly and turned their crumpled faces toward Sub-Zero. He felt the hunger emanating from them, palpable and heavy, like dogs straining at a leash. "Come my dear friends!" Quan Chi opened his arms wide, his melodious voice ringing loud. "Let us give a proper Netherrealm welcome – we have the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei in our midst!" Furtive imps, harpies, and devilish horned creatures crawled back up to line the barrage of bodies and peer down into the curious arena made of the hilltop summit.

Sareena glanced sidelong at Kuai Liang. While she knew he was not his brother, he had never revealed his identity as Grandmaster to her. Quan Chi took a step forward. His ghastly pale skin picked up the red hues from the burning sky above and offset the twisted circles of old enchantments tattooed into his flesh.

"And I suppose I should have expected the treacherous duo to make a comeback." His eyes narrowed on Sareena, then passed on to Noob Saibot.

The wraith and his shadow knelt in the earth, fingers tracing patterns in the dust, a low chant still passing from him in a continuous drone. There was a desperation in his posture and a foolishness to the urgency of his scrabbling in the dust.

"Not as easy as it looks, is it, Noob?" Quan Chi laughed. The wraith ignored him. Quan Chi stepped forward. Kuai Liang moved and blocked his path. "An admirable effort, Grandmaster. But I'm afraid all your efforts have all been in vain. Surely you must know that Noob Saibot cannot leave this place? He cannot be _saved_. He is reborn as a wraith. Surely, you are not fool enough to think that the undead shadows that serve me in Netherrealm bare any resemblance to their former selves? That is not your brother. Your brother burned alive."

Kuai Liang said nothing. He merely held his ground, curled his fingers into fists set Quan Chi's with a chilling, steadfast stare.

"You are looking stronger, Grandmaster. When I saw you last, you were barely out of youth, running around Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat tournament trying to challenge my spectre Scorpion to a death match. My poor, foolish servant could never quite understand why there were so many Sub-Zeros and why they were all out to kill him. Not the brightest one, but unstoppable in his fury, as dear Noob Saibot here found out a little too late... So sad that Scorpion managed to wriggle free of me, I would dearly like to have seen him finish the two of you off."

Kuai Liang gritted his teeth but kept his peace, standing rooted and immovable between Quan Chi and his brother. When he was again met with silence, Quan Chi's face lapsed from humour into its usual sour lines.

"Come, Sareena." He said coldly, "This charade has gone on long enough. You belong at my side. Return now and your punishment will be much lighter."

Kuai Liang glanced at her. There was something hopeful in her eyes, almost as if she was considering the proposal.

"Sareena." Sub Zero said gently but firmly. She looked to him and he saw the fear in her. She drew from his quiet strength until her face was set and stubborn again.

"No more, Quan Chi. I will no longer be under your power! I will be free of you!"

"Very well!" Quan Chi said brightly, and much to everyone's surprise, "I shall cease to exercise all power over you, Sareena. I will lift all my magics that lie on you, and you will be free to-"

"Wait!" Sareena broke in suddenly. She shot a sidelong look at Kuai Liang. Her fear was back, but it did not seem to stem from the same place it had before. Kuai looked at her in confusion. "Wait!" She turned back to Quan Chi. The necromancer had a lethargic, knowing look to his face.

"Sareena," He drawled slowly, "Did you forget to mention to your new friend about your... condition?"

Sareena looked panicked. She licked her lips, then curled and uncurled her fists.

"What do you reckon, my dear? Would these two bold, stoic men allow you to keep their company if you did not wear this... alluring form? Let's test it shall we?"

"No!" She cried suddenly, "Master, wait."

Sub-Zero baulked at her change in terms of address,

"Sareena-" He said again,

"I-I'm a demon." She said brokenly, turning to him. Quan Chi stepped back with a smile and let the encounter play out.

"I know." He did know, even if he did not entirely know what that meant.

"I... I don't look like this in my natural state."

"That doesn't matter to me."

"It would! It would if you saw me! If you knew what I really was!" All her posture had curled inward in shame and her voice was becoming hysterical. She looked back to Quan Chi, "Please don't! Just let me stay like this. I'll... I'll come with you."

"Sareena!" Kuai said in a sharp voice he usually reserved for dealing with his fierce apprentice, Frost. He pulled back his hood and took off his mask, revealing dark cropped hair and pale skin where the grey strip of paint across his upper face stopped. A thin scar straggled from his brow down through one eye. "The things we present ourselves as... and try to appear as..." His eyes strayed to Noob Saibot who was cupping purple flames in his hands and whispering madly. "... Do not define us. The things we choose to do, the people we choose to trust... these things are more truly us." He stepped closer to her, "I know... I, of all people, know."

Her eyes thinned to slits,

"You do not. You do not see the way I am looked at in my true form. I need this. I need this beauty. Bi-Han and you both would have killed me if I did not have it. You judge with your sight even without thinking of it. When you see something you are attracted to – you give it the chances that something hideous never would have had."

"That's not true-"

"It is!" She insisted fiercely. "I have to be this way! I have to appear this way! And its not for me... its for people like you!"

"No!" He Kuai could feel himself stalling, "Bi-Han, help me-"

"When Bi-Han first came to our domain, he left a trail of slaughter in his wake – demons and beasts of all sizes fell to him. Only once did he spare someone – someone with the appearance of a young, beautiful woman..."

"So you would fault him for his mercy now?!"

"You seduce me with the fractions of emotion you let slip through your cold, cruel exteriors, dangle freedom before my face and bait me with it. I keep falling for you, and suffering for you. Sometimes I wish I had never met you, Sub-Zero."

Bi-Han and Kuai Liang both stared at her. Neither knew who she spoke to, but that did not seem to matter for the present.

"This time will be different," Kuai Liang said earnestly, "We-"

"You will what – take back a full formed demon to your Lin Kuei Temple?" She stalked forward proudly, holding high her head with flowing black locks streaked with artful white. "Beauty in Netherrealm looks the same as beauty in Earthrealm. Until that changes, I know where I have to be. She offered an elegant hand to Quan Chi who kept his laughing eyes on Sub-Zero as he brought her fingers to his lips.

"Go collect your sisters' remains, Sareena. It's going to take some time to piece them back together." She bowed low to him and walked on.

"Sareena!" Kuai called, "Don't go! We need you! Bi-Han and I... we cannot do this alone!" She looked back once with all the torn agony of one riven in two. Then she left.

Sub-Zero swallowed and held his ground between Quan Chi and Noob Saibot. The necromancer tilted his head,

"And then there were two." He smiled thinly, "It was good of Noob to bring you here, Sub-Zero. I would have had a hard time bartering your soul with Raiden. Much easier to take what's already here, as Noob well knows." Sub-Zero was adamant and unfazed in the face of the taunts. He knew that Quan Chi meant to shake his resolve, but his determination and certainty were one of the few things that rarely failed him. He heard something stir behind him. He paused, glancing at the sorcerer and unwilling to let him out of his sight even fractionally. The necromancer looked strangely sedate however. Kuai chanced a glimpse behind. His brother had stopped in his long ritual and was looking past to Quan Chi. Kuai found it hard to read him with the mask, the hood, and the white eyes, but there was a cornered, uncertain fear to his posture.

"Bi-Han," Kuai whispered. The wraith's eyes swivelled to him. "Keep going. I have this."

There was a long pause, then the wraith nodded and bent to his task again.

"I rarely have to resort to physically destroying my servants when they disobey me," Quan Chi offered the explanation matter-of-factly, as if speaking to Kuai of the weather. "It's much easier to hold their greatest fears to ransom. Tell me, Sub-Zero, did you ever ask your brother what temperature fire has to be to burn a cryomancer alive?"The sorcerer took another step closer, pushing into Kuai's personal space. Sub-Zero flexed his shoulders, pulled himself taller and stared down the sorcerer. The necromancer carried on oblivious, "Let's see... It has to be hot enough to take all the moisture out the air first, otherwise the cryomancer reflexively summons ice in layers that are not quite enough to stop the burning, but are enough to delay death by... quite some time. I'm surprised he did not mention that to you. He must have known there was high likelihood that his exploits would see you incarcerated in one of Netherrealm's more infamous planes... But perhaps that does not concern him... Perhaps you were merely a tool to his ends." Kuai realised that Quan Chi's eyes were not on him at all, and that his words were aimed straight at the wraith. Sub-Zero did not look back. Instead pulled back his head and rammed his skull down straight into Quan Chi's chin. The necromancer staggered back clutching his jaw. The oni beside him stirred to life. Quan Chi threw out an arm to stop them. The reluctantly obeyed.

"And I was being so civil, Sub-Zero!" He brought his fingers away and wrinkled his nose at the blood that came too. "But if you really insist on violence... that of course can be arranged."

Kuai Liang glanced around him for anything that he might use in his favour.

"Let's see how long you last... an earthrealmer in the Netherrealm against two oni."

Kuai knew that the necromancer was signalling to the beasts beside him. This was going to be a very short match given all the current conditions. _I don't want to end up here. Not Netherrealm. Better nothingness – an eternal stillness of nothing than this place._ He raised his eyes skyward in desperation. Dark purple clouds curled spirals above the bleak standing stones. In the slowed down moments that come with resolute acceptance, he founding himself wondering what Netherrealm clouds were made of. He reached his arms wide and leaned back, fingers rigid as he sought for water caught in the skies above.

Air moved about him. It twisted and funnelled, struggling hot and dry toward him. He strained his reach, willing the moisture from its tormented, stagnant confines. Puce clouds writhed, dragged by a thin twist of air. A distance boom sounded out across the sky. He was reminded that this realm was not his realm, that he did not belong here, that people and places far away awaited him, and that there was no ice in the Netherrealm, just as there was no Thunder. A tornado of dark cloud sped down to him, dissipating into a thousand water droplets as he summoned the vapour to him. He drew it to him until there was nothing left. The sky was bare and empty lit by the eternal ember of distant fire. Sub-Zero released ice from him an enormous explosion that froze the very air before him. He could not see for the raging blizzard that blasted forth from him. He could not hear for the sound of the arctic wind roaring in his ears. He could not feel for the numbing cold soaking all around him.

When he open his eyes there were snowflakes. They turned light upon the air. A glittering blue iceberg with perfect lines of deep aquamarine stood before him. He stepped in this new scene like a child caught in wonder. He reached out to touch the glass cold surface of the iceberg. Within he saw the enraged, stunned faces of the oni, one with its armed club raised high to crush him, the other with ball and chain caught mid-flight. Between the two stood Quan Chi. Despite being frozen, his eyeballs followed Sub-Zero.

"Impressive." Noob Saibot looked up from where he knelt. A rim of light snow collected on his mask.

"Yes." Sub-Zero agreed. He would take a compliment from Bi-Han whenever it was offered. "I have a feeling this is a very impermanent solution though."

The hand he brought away from the ice was wet. The snowflakes had ceased and a pool of water was seeping from the ice before evaporating with a soft hiss on the hot earth.

"If you could hurry up with this portal..."

"I am hurrying."

"It's not noticeable."

"Stop distracting me, Kuai Liang. I'm nearly done."

" _Very_ nearly I hope." The dripping ice was steaming. It began to tremble, under the convulsions of its occupants. Cracks split the deep, pure surfaces a flat white. The cracks spread, darting and jolting in random directions like rats in gutters. "When you said _nearly_... are we talking another _hour_ nearlyor a few _seconds_ nearly?" Sub-Zero watched the cracks split into fissures. The fissures ruptured further, shooting shards of ice as they did so. He backed away. He could think of nothing more. His ideas were run as dry as the picture before him was becoming. He summoned a kori sword of ice to his hand and again positioned himself between the shuddering iceberg and Noob Saibot. He let his posture relax into a strong steady stance, like old ice. He breathed deep in through his nose and out through his mouth. He centred his mind, recalling the meditative stillness he had felt in the midst of that momentary blizzard. _It would be good to see home again. To feel that true stillness that only comes of deep, silent winters. One day it will happen. You and I will stand in the dead of the midnight sun on equal terms. There will be no need for words, because we will speak the language of the cold, and that will be enough. Elder Gods, is that too much to ask?_

Ice cracked open. Bursting like a newborn from its shell, the two oni roared and beat their chests to the sky. Quan Chi blasted away the remains of the ice with green flames. All signs of conversation were gone from his face, instead his shoulders hunched with rage and menace as he gathered himself, eyes ignited with fury.

A jarring grated through the air with a sound like liquid being sucked violently into one place. A perfect silence followed for all of a fraction. Then an explosion of light and noise burst from behind Kuai before retracting and stabilising itself into massive swirling black and violet portal. Kuai had enough time to be startled by the churning anomaly before his vision started to swim green and he felt his limbs snap to his sides. His will buffeted down to a small thin voice screaming inside his own skull.

A blur of frantic energy sheered all about him. Out the corners of his eyes he could see strange new figures – humanoids with faces wrought by twisting, aimless tattoos laughing as they leapt and ran past him. Their bodies moved with an odd freedom, contorting easily to dodge arrows and stones. Their joints bent in impossible directions even as their warcries ran backwards. They jumped upon and swarmed the enormous oni, their unique, customised weapons flashing across the grotesque demonic hulks. Others danced past altogether to run nimbly up the wall of corpses and drag off Netherrealm creatures lurking there. All was a wash and buzz of movement, but noise was somehow distant and far away. Kuai Liang could look only straight forward where a green tunnel of energy dragged his unwilling limbs into staggering steps ever closer to Quan Chi. The necromancer had a bloodless pale hand contorted in an invisible grip as he summoned Sub-Zero forward. All ease and aloof leisure were gone out of the necromancer's expression. His true colours of raw loathing and twisted hunger were hideous upon his face. Sub-Zero could see the future the necromancer intended for him written behind the crimson of his eyes. The earthrealmer struggled against the hold, desperately trying to regain control of his body as it walked with a lethargic stunted steps to its doom. He could feel his heartbeat galloping in his chest and his throat drying and his helpless amble neared its termination. With his free hand the sorcerer pulled a wicked, ornate, sacrificial blade from a scabbard. Sub-Zero tried to keep his eyes on the weapon, but they would not obey. As he drew close, his field of vision narrowed until the sword vanished from his sight, raised high off somewhere to his right. He heard its swing through the dead air. He did not have any thoughts as he waited with tunnelled sight and immobile limbs, myopic attention captured by the vision of eternal hellfire and torture lit in Quan Chi's eyes.

* * *

Time seemed to slow and his mind was dragged forth to a scene as sharp and real as the vivid dreams that had burst into his sleep every time he had laid down to rest in Netherrealm. This time when he looked down, however, his arms were pasty white and inscribed with old red runes and circles. He was laughing. There was indescribable malice and emptiness fuelling that manic laughter. Before him was... himself – Kuai Liang, dressed in the garb of the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. The front of the Grandmaster's garb was held in the grip of one white hand. The Grandmaster's back was to a precipice. Below, a river boiled. It was a coagulated, congealing, curdling red. Each bubble burst left thick bloodstains on the bare cliff rock. A sky on fire blazed mad red and hot screaming orange above. Flames fell like burning arrows in the horizon and set ablaze a long, empty desert, upon which grey bodies writhed and twitched.

"Come, _Grandmaster_ Kuai Liang. Time to meet fate." He heard the dark, melodious and unmistakeable tones of Quan Chi issue from himself.

The boiling blood gurgled and babbled below. He watched from the sorcerer's vantage as his white hand let go of the blue robes and the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei fell. He felt the sorcerer's erupting vindictive hatred when he caught sight of the terror in the Grandmaster's eyes as he disappeared below.

* * *

Green and black split his vision into a riot of confusion. The river of blood jolted and jarred and was suddenly disrupted into a shadowy, hazy scene.

* * *

It smelt real. And the way the light fell... this did not have to be fine-grained image for him to know it. He had spent most of his life in this room. It was the sleeping cell he and his brother had shared all their life under the old Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. It looked different though. He had not seen it from this angle before. He was looking at his bed from a low angle on the other side of the room. He could just make out the bamboo mat and thrown-back cover in the dim light of night. Rain pounded on the thin wooden door and thunder growled and boomed beyond. A small child stood in the centre of his room. The child had bare feet and curled his toes against the cold stone of the floor. He did not recognise him. He looked very young, much younger than any child Kuai Liang had seen at the temple before, and certainly too young to be admitted to the school under his watch as Grandmaster.

"Go back to bed." He told the child.

The boy's arms hugged himself and he shook his head.

"Do as you're told. You must be brave from now on. Be brave and strong and everything will be alright."

Another boom of thunder set the door rattling and a bright flash of light ignited the room. The child flinched, but otherwise did not move or speak. Wide eyes stared straight at him.

He felt a surge of compassion well within him. His sternness faltered and he tried to swallow down the pity he felt for the child. He fought with himself for a long moment before saying more gently,

"Come here, Kuai Liang."

The small boy did as he was bidden. He pulled the covers over the child and let him curl up against his chest. He folded his arms around the cold, shaking body and let his embrace be a shelter from the dark shadows of the night.

* * *

Tight arms wrapped around Kuai Liang. There was an agonising war for his body that lasted all of half a second but left him a battleground of pain as control was wrenched from the necromancer. Sub-Zero felt himself constricted through the sudden suffocating blackness of void and shadow. When he burst free into the hot chaotic world once more he thought for a moment that he had forgotten how to breathe. He gripped tightly onto the arms before him, lurching and retching for air, mind still ploughed up by the hypnotic flames of hell seared into his thought from moments before.

"You are safe." He let himself be brought out of dark places by that familiar voice. Even the sound of it quieted wild storms in his mind. Air soared into his lungs, and he gasped it in desperately. His shoulders heaved as he breathed in and out, restoring movement and freedom to his muscles.

"I thought- I thought... In the end there will be so much fire... so much pain, so-"

"It will not be your fate. I swear it."

"It was – I was already there, I was half a second from-"

"Kuai Liang."

Sub-Zero looked up to his brother's face. He faintly recalled it lit by the monochrome of a thunderstorm. The way lightning had carved the shape of his eyes, cheekbones, and the sharp angle of his brow.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't there for you." Kuai started, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

"Breathe. You're not thinking clearly. It's a result of breaking Quan Chi's mind control over you."

"You were there for me all my life, and the one time you needed me, I wasn't there."

"It wasn't your fault, Kuai Liang. It was nothing to do with you, and everything to do with the path I-"

"It _was_ to do with me. You are my brother. I should not have let you down. I should have been at your side."

"You are at my side now."

The exchange was so quick that words came and went like sharp changing winds without thought for things like pomposity, pride and deliberation. Sub-Zero breathed more slowly and regularly. His mind cleared.

He was standing on the edge of the hill top, with molten magma slithering away as a thin river below him. He realised he was still holding fast to Noob Saibot after the teleport. He released his grip quickly and straightened up, drawing back his shoulders and standing tall. The roving swirl of an indigo portal stood between them and Quan Chi. A cackling overflow of chaosrealmers were leaping in sprightly, quick advances from the wound rent in the sky. Their tattooed torsos flooded the hillside, littering the air with the screams of Netherrealm creatures. The frenzied sounds and smell of war were beginning to start up in earnest now that there were two sides the battle.

"We must leave here quickly," Noob said, and set his grip on Sub-Zero again, ready to teleport.

"No."

Noob stopped and looked at him,

"We must go. The turn of the tides is yet to be determined. Whether Netherrealm falls or not, you must return to your Earthrealm portal. Your task is done here."

"I have a debt yet unpaid. I mean to stay here and help you win this war."

"It is not a _debt_ , Kuai Liang! It is just who I was! Now, this is who I am. And you are who you are. And you must go."

Kuai Liang ground his teeth and turned away sharply. As he did so he felt acutely the recent harrying assault on his mind, the teeth punctures he had acquired earlier in his calves, and the taught lacerations about his throat from claws and nails, the raked open wounds across his back and the bruises on his chest from the crush of creatures that had piled upon him. Beneath all this was the underlying constant heat and foul dead air always tugging apart his strength and stamina. He was standing on adrenaline and sheer willpower, he knew, but that did little to curb his pride.

"If I go, let me go alone. I know the way. Your fight is here. All will have been for nothing if you do not win here and now. This was your plan all along, was it not? If you get me to the other side of that river of lava down there and I will find my own way."

"I'm taking you to the portal."

"Stop ignoring me and for once in your life and listen to what I am saying!" He snapped, his voice finally deadly cold, "I am grown man and will not be treated like a child by you! You will respect me for who I am and let me make my own choices!"

The wraith paused, perhaps taken aback. He replied more carefully,

"I'm not ignoring you. But I am taking you to the portal myself. By _my_ own choice. I will make good on our deal before I proceed to the next stage of my plan." There was a slight hesitation, before the wraith slowly added, "Will you let me do this, Kuai Liang?"

"I appreciate your attempt to humour my request for respect, even if it is all superficial, but-"

"Sub-Zero." Kuai Liang stared at him. A faint blush crawled painfully up his face. Noob Saibot had never called him that before. "If you insist on going alone," The wraith continued, "I will do as you ask, and leave you on the other side of that river. You are Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. I do not doubt your ability to get out of Netherrealm alive."

Kuai was stunned into silence. He also, now that he looked, saw that the horizon bent and tilted in such away that he was not at all sure where he had come from. He looked back to his brother and thought he saw something glittering in his eye, as if this situation was playing out somewhat according to his design.

"Take me to the portal." Kuai said gruffly.

After the first portal jump, Kuai seized Noob's arm and pointed back up to the hill top. They stood now beyond the river of fire and Kuai was pleased to see that the scale of devastation he had wrought was making all movement about the fell difficult. Bodies were stacked on stakes or piled up in pits or rolled down the still unstable earth where he had torn up the ground with ice shards. It was not at this that he pointed however. An imposing man, face partly worn down to the skull beneath, stood in semi-centurian garb, surveying the scene as he stood before the churning portal. When he moved, his limbs possessed a fluidity of their own, bending at impossible angles, as if all his joints were backwards. Kuai could not even see a consistency in the way that body moved. The sight unnerved him in a way that even the most gruesome Netherrealm sights could not. Noob nodded beside him,

"The agents of Chaos certainly live up to their name."

"You allied with _that_? What even is he?"

"There are no true alliances in the Chaosrealm. I opened a gate and let in a people who despise ordered death and structured afterlife. Havik and I have an agreement that serves both our purposes for the present. Let us go."

Kuai watched as the cleric of chaos let fall the chain of a morning star. His body contorted out of the way as he swung the steel full circle, breaking what would have been his own spine merely to extend the reach of his weapon. His body tilted back up with no injury as he changed the angle and sent another circle of bodies flying in multiple directions.

"I hope you know what your doing..." Kuai murmured,

"I always do."

Noob seized him and pulled him down into another portal.

They moved quickly over the tormented landscape, sometimes with Noob Saibot's short distance teleport, and at other times by foot. Each proved difficult for Kuai Liang. The scars of recent battle were beginning to feel very present, combined with older half-healed injuries that took the opportunity to pain him as his adrenaline slumped. He could feel the burn in his soles from the molten lava the day before, and the consistent dry heat and poor diet coming to a crashing climax in his body. Each teleport only added to this pressure, squeezing him as if through a thin, suffocating tube only to exacerbate the conflicting pains trying to tear him apart. He summoned his muscles to obey his will and set his teeth hard.

"You have spent a long time in this realm – longer than I did when I was alive. It is not good for the living to linger among the dead."

"Master of the obvious." He meant that to sound casual but it came out forced and textured with the warring agonies within. Noob Saibot looked at him, but Sub-Zero did not bother trying to gauge what was going on in his brother's head.

The last stretch took them by the same rickety path they had first arrived by. Its faintly familiar image wavered before Kuai's tired eyes. When they passed the gully where he had first seen Sareena, he paused. Guessing his mind, Noob said,

"She made her decision."

Kuai nodded slowly,

"I really thought she would stay and help us. She seemed so sure of what she wanted..."

"Everything in Netherrealm is sure of what it wants. But we must weigh up those desires against our fears. There is very little worth attaining here that makes risking insurgence a viable option. Sareena is a creature from this realm who is always trying to break free. Where she places her trust says more about those she encounters than it does about her. She is always resilient, but she will not fight loosing battles. That she turned back to Quan Chi means that we failed her, not that she fell short."

"Not like you to be so gracious in your assessment of others."

Noob Saibot gestured for them to continue,

"You know nothing of demons. That she fights what is in her nature is an impossibility she is constantly trying to hold out against. Only as a wraith bound to the Netherrealm do I understand at what cost and with what difficulty she first betrayed Quan Chi for me. When others no longer bind her to her nature with their assumptions – only then will she be free. Until then she is doomed to be the trickster – in all sincerity moving between freedom and captivity, betraying both sides in an eternal cycle. Quan Chi knows this – and uses it against his enemies."

"If you knew all this... why did you not tell me? I would not have... misplaced my trust so foolishly."

"Truly?" Noob Saibot sounded tired as he looked up toward the sight of the bright vortex of the Earthrealm portal, reflecting and consuming light as it blighted the landscape with its anomaly. "I did not think she would make the same mistake again of allying herself with my cause. I know the cycle of her betrayal is inevitable, but I did not think it would be me who was be involved in it again."

"Maybe she likes you."

He'd said that in all light heartedness, but the stare he got back made him swallow his humour very quickly. He winced and looked away before the moment got out of hand,

"The Earthrealm portal," Kuai said with all the brightness he did not feel either mentally or physically, "I've survived Netherrealm and a week in your company, though I can't say which caused me more consternation."

"Indeed." Noob said dryly, still moving on slowly from the comment about Sareena.

"Can Quan Chi be killed?" Kuai kept the conversation steered on.

"He can be imprisoned. And subdued." A fell light ignited in Noob Saibot's eyes at the thought of this.

"And what... you'll start rearranging the Netherrealm furniture to suit your style? Can you maybe turn down the heat – I'm not coming to visit until this place feels less like Scorpion's back yard."

"Humour does not become you."

"Nor world domination you."

The wraith raised an eyebrow, but then looked out over the cracked red land and its burning sky. His thoughts seemed to wander again from the present into a future where he was his own master. Sub-Zero wondered if he might take the moment to ask his brother to return with him; to ask him to let all of this go; to fight the cruelty of the Netherrealm and its hold over him. His heart fell as he thought on how little progress he had made in trying to help his brother see the error of his ways. He looked away with downcast eyes.

"You did well today. You fended off an entire army alone." The wraith considered, matter-of-factly, then added, "I'm proud of you."

Kuai covered his surprise with a stoic silence. His glance slid warily and cautiously to watch his brother, steeling himself for the put down that must come next. There was quiet and his brother did not make eye contact. Kuai blinked in confusion. He could feel his insides curling as if he looked over the edge of a precipice.

"Don't toy with me," His throat was dry, but that might have been from the air. "I don't want to hear any more falsities from you. I want you understand that my being here, and everything I have done here, has been of my own volition. I want you to know that, and respect that, and stop trying to manipulate me by telling me what I want to hear and leading me from one charade into-."

"I was being honest."

Kuai was so blank and speechless that he could not form words, let alone an expression. He stood there stupidly. He looked away suddenly into the horizon and initiated a default emotionless slate to hide everything surging within him.

"What you did back there was impressive. I knew I made a good decision in choosing you to aid me. You are much stronger than the young man I left behind when I voyaged to Shang Tsung's Island. But you still have much to learn."

Kuai looked at him, for once able to meet that gaze on an even term and take both the compliment and the advice.

"You do not yet understand your true strength. Remember my mistakes. Learn from where I went wrong. Don't be _me_ , Kuai Liang. Be you. That is what I wanted to protect from the Grandmaster. You have something special. Something I could never understand or emulate. Now go. Be free. Like you always wanted."

The wraith turned back toward the way they had come.

"Wait, Bi-Han. What do you mean 'like I always wanted'? I've... I've never known what I wanted..."

Noob Saibot gave him a familiar, scornful look,

"Kuai Liang, must you always ask such stupid questions? It is blindingly obvious to everyone that meets you that you have absolute conviction in your beliefs and never have or will be swayed otherwise. Why do you think Smoke and Cyrax rebelled against the Cyber Initiative? Why do you think I continually stepped between you and all the consequences of your rebellion? Why do you think Sareena remembered her old familiarity with me? You catch people up in your passion. They do ridiculous things because you make them believe that they can be something better than the dregs of life that have been handed to them. Both of us wielded ice, Kuai Liang, but only one of us burned fire inside. You spent so long looking up or behind that you never seemed to notice that the rest of us were looking _to you_. We never understood what was going on in your crazed head, but we knew it must not be snuffed out by the Lin Kuei."

Kuai Liang pulled off his mask and pushed down his hood.

"Brother... what? What are you-?"

"Quiet. We have talked long enough. I have a war to win. I believe your price for this venture was a conversation. In an uncharacteristic act of charity I will exclude this trip down memory lane, and grant you one more audience at a time and location of your choosing – provided I am not being tortured for eternity for a failed coup."

Kuai Liang watched him with silent but intense eyes, concern written in his posture, but never spoken. A sudden thought flashed across his mind,

"Wait, Bi-Han, there's something I meant to ask you." He saw the wraith's eyes narrow, "On the first day I was here in Netherrealm, when I..." He took a deep breath, "When I collapsed – you gave me water to drink. Where did it come from? I've not seen any at all in Netherrealm, and I was unconscious so could not make the ice myself..."

Noob Saibot regarded him inscrutably, then pulled his arms across his chest.

"Goodbye, Kuai Liang."

He plunged down into a dark oily portal and vanished.

Kuai watched the place he had left for some time afterwards. An emptiness formed up around him and he felt something ache within – as if he had again lost something integral to him. He focussed on his quiet breathing – the only breathing in all Netherrealm. Then he turned and walked through the gateway between hell and earth. He felt old gnarled hands falling away from him and strength flow through his limbs like rich rivers. Distant voices snapped and clamoured, howling at his departure and escape. He brushed past them like wreathes of fireflies, his will bent on singular forward movement. Then there was silence.

Light firs shifted noiselessly in a slight wind. Their needles glowed red with the dying light of a bright white sunset. Brooding clouds murmured in corners of the sky and in places shed tears of tumbling snow. He exhaled and saw his breath distil into great cold plumes. He felt the bites and scars of another world's war dull and fade into dimness. A sudden gust of wind shook the still firs and ruffled blankets of deep snow to thud to the floor. He felt the chill brush over his arms and set his hair on end. The air he breathed in was spiked with cold and sharp in his lungs. Light and shadow stood in sharp contrast, black and white, each knowing where one ended and the other began. When he looked up he could see the roots of ancient mountains, bellies lost to thick white mists shot through with the later gold of the evening.

 _Home._


	7. Epilogue

The still quiet of winter settled over the austere carved stone of the temple. Snow fell with a slight certainly, each flake weighted with a purpose in its steady tumble. A blanket of pure white spread over the courtyard and covered the fine detail on old guardians standing in the architecture and intricacies wrought in the pagoda roofs.

He turned back from the window where he had paused to watch the serenity. Lines of students were working through a form to a count ringing out from the front. They stepped in unison, blocked in unison, turned and kicked in unison. The sight of that order after the hot confusion of the time he had spent in Netherrealm was sorely welcome. He walked up the rows, looking for irregularities and mistakes. He came to a stand at the front of the room. They finished the form with a shout, brought their feet together and bowed. He nodded and glanced outside again. He wanted to partake in the solace and tranquillity that picture offered. There would be other days to work on form and technique. He dismissed the class and began to make his way to a side door.

"Grandmaster?"

He was careful not to let his irritation show when he turned to the student. A boy of about ten stood before him, anxiously twisting his hands as the Grandmaster's gaze rested on him.

"What is it?" Kuai Liang kept his tone even, but the child seemed to jump at the depth of his voice regardless.

"I just wondered i-if I could ask you a question, Grandmaster..." The boy looked at him then glanced away as if afraid. The Grandmaster nodded for the boy to continue. "We... we train so that we can be the best killers in all the world, right? I just wondered..." The child looked abashed, "I... I just wondered why, Grandmaster? Didn't you once say that there are other ways to resolve conflict than with violence? If that's true, then why do we train to assassinate people? Isn't that just resolving other people's conflicts with violence?"

Kuai Liang smiled gently at the child. The question was well-spoken and respectful.

"We don't train _just_ to assassinate people, young one, we train to understand ourselves. We discipline ourselves and find ourselves in the stillness that comes of knowing the fullest limits of body and mind. We train to be at one with all around us, and strive to know perfection in all we do."

"Alright, Grandmaster, I know that – you always say that. But that doesn't explain why we kill people. And why we sell our skills to kill for other people."

The boy seemed to have forgotten some of his shyness and a petulant pout had settled on his lips. This irked the Grandmaster but he removed all emotion from his face.

"Part of what the Lin Kuei have always done is to offer their services to those nearby. It used to be our way of living alongside the local community. They would feed us, and in return we would protect them, and remove those who sought to indenture them. Now that exchange is global. We offer our services to any who need them all over the world. The price we ask feeds all the temple. I look over the contracts we receive carefully, and accept only those I wish to."

"Alright, Grandmaster, but I still don't understand why those people have to die. Why does it have to happen this way?"

"What do you mean _why_? I just explained why! To support our Temple, to honour our name and history – it's the way the Lin Kuei have always been! What more _why_ do you want!?"

"It's just – you said its because its the way it always has been, but I don't understand why that means-"

"Questions! Always with questions!" Sub-Zero finally drew himself up to his full height, and folded his arms, "Enough of this! This is the Lin Kuei way; that's all you need to know. You're wasting training time. Drop this now, do you understand?"

"Yes, Grandmaster." Said the boy automatically. He bowed quickly, "I didn't mean any disrespect, Grandmaster, I didn't mean to question the Lin Kuei, I only-"

"I said, enough."

The boy bowed again, backed away and scuttled off.

Sub-Zero turned once again to the still winter scene outside. He relaxed a little when he saw its purity and order.

"Finally," The Grandmaster said softly, "A moment of peace."

* * *

 **Author Note:** So many thanks to all readers, reviews and comments. This was a fun project to work on and its been amazing to gets so much nice feedback on it. I always wanted to explore Kuai Liang and Bi-Han's relationship more. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it :)

Both Kuai Liang and I thought this was going to be a story about saving Bi-Han, but it turned out that we weren't ready for that. So instead I realised Kuai needed to sort himself out first and to see all the things in his life that made him into a force to be reckoned with. Bi-Han is the perfect person to have seen that all along and , just maybe in the process, that was the kind of 'saving' Bi-Han needed all along. I wonder if, as the memory of the old Lin Kuei becomes history, if Grandmaster Kuai Liang might not slip slowly into the the way of life he grew up despising; the places where order and tradition make control easier. Maybe more rebels and less leaders are what was needed. But there will always be new Kuai Liangs in the next generation, so maybe its not too late to remember the roots of where change was meant to be...


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